Forgotten In The Land Of Egypt

I look at these fields and I try to imagine what they were: crop fields, maybe. Or fields of sheep. And these... power lines. I try to imagine that they lead somewhere - but they never do. Only under.

In 1631, The Fens, the flat area of land stretching from Cambridge to Norwich, were drained.

In 2050, The Fens return to the sea. Two children play in the waterscape. They tell tales of a mythic Waterman, who scours the water for sunken parts. But, in the bitter struggle for survival, soon play adopts a more sinister note.

Meanwhile in Ely, 2023, a priest gets a visit from a woman haunted by prophetic dreams.

Tom Murray’s Forgotten In The Land Of Egyptis a play about grief, faith, and the climate crisis; the crashing confluence of past and present; the refusal to heed the warnings we’re given. It’s a play about loneliness and the longing for human connection.

This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere UK tour starting in September 2024.

Tom Murray is a playwright and dramaturg. He graduated from Durham University in 2021 with a degree in History before doing an MA in Dramaturgy and Writing for Performance at Goldsmiths in 2022. He was named the Peter Shaffer Playwright in Residence at Trinity College, Cambridge in 2023. His play North Star was the winning script for the RSC 37 Plays competition in 2023.