Holes

by Tom Basden

"We are the survivors of flight BA043. We don't know where we are. You have to help us. Hello? ... Is there anybody out there? ... Hello ... ?" Stranded, four survivors wait. Surely somebody will find them. Planes don't just disappear, do they? And, if no-one's coming ... what do they do now?

88 pages, Paperback

First published August 8, 2013

About the author

Tom Basden (b. England, 1980) is a British actor and comedy writer, and a member of the British four man sketch group Cowards. He has written and performed extensively for comedy shows on the BBC and Channel 4 and often collaborates in two-man shows with fellow Cowards member Tim Key.

Basden was educated at King's College School, an independent school for boys in Wimbledon in South West London (in the same year group as actors Khalid Abdalla and Ben Barnes), followed by Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge. He was vice president of the Footlights and his contemporaries included Stefan Golaszewski, Sarah Solemani, Tim Key and Dan Stevens.

Basden's one man show at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Tom Basden Won't Say Anything won the if.comedy award for Best Newcomer. He also starred with Tim Key in the short film The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island, which won the UK Film Council Kodak Award for Best British Short Film.
Basden replaced Tim Minchin as the resident musician for the second series of Mark Watson Makes the World Substantially Better where he appears along with Tim Key and Mark Watson.
He was a guest panellist on the BBC Two programme "Never Mind The Buzzcocks" on Wednesday, 4 November 2009.

In 2011 he wrote There Is A War starring himself and Phoebe Fox for the National Theatre's Double Feature.
In 2012, he appeared as musical side-kick to Key in his Radio 4 programme Tim Key's Late Night Poetry.
From 2010 to 2012 Basden has written and starred in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom Party. It also stars Key, Jonny Sweet, Anna Crilly and Katy Wix and has just finished its third series.

Reviews

[Nadja]

This fast-paced play started off very funny but suprised then with profound themes until the shocking finale..

[Christopher M.]

A funny play with lively dialogue that turns dark before the end. I'd have liked a bit more on what had actually happened to the world beyond the desert island, and the treatment of Erin is a bit icky, but mostly a good time.

[Oscar Dent]

Consistently funny. The tone changes in a couple of substantial leaps that felt quite jarring but I imagine that is (part of) the point. I really enjoyed this and wish I could have seen it put on, I imagine Rigby would have done it justice.

[Jaylen Roberts]

Pretty funny, nothing profound or unique

[Artemi Marketou]

Read for the ZEST Reading Panel.

[Semi-Colin]

This was a very fun play. Doing what, for me, Tom Basden does best: capturing the bureaucracy of stupid/ignorant people. It’s what I loved about his other play ‘Party’ and was really taken to its most dramatic stakes here.

[Livinginthecastle]

Bit abrupt the ending and the descent into darkness, but interesting.