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1915. Jack Twigg, twenty-one years old, enlists in the London Regiment and goes on a journey he never imagined - nor did the rest of the world. On his way, he meets the pioneering medic Harold Gillies, who saves his life and his sanity. And who is the mysterious Doctor Scroggy who appears at night in Gillies’ hospital dispensing champagne to the patients?
Doctor Scroggy's War premiered at Shakespeare's Globe, London, in September 2014.
Howard Brenton is a prolific playwright whose plays have been staged at the Royal Court Theatre, National Theatre, RSC and Shakespeare's Globe among others. Other writing work includes collaborations with David Hare and thirteen episodes of the BBC1 drama series Spooks.
'sharp and entertaining... strikes a chord with our own intensified concern for the returning veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq' - WhatsOnStage
'appealing and engaging... one of the very finest of this year’s glut of First World War dramas' - Evening Standard
'Howard Brenton’s fine new play... hits you in the heart' - Guardian
'compelling... [a] big, warm, perceptive play' - Telegraph
Howard Brenton, FRSL, is a renowned playwright and author. His many plays include The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, adapted from the novel by Robert Tressell (Liverpool Everyman and Chichester Festival Theatre, 2010); Anne Boleyn (Shakespeare’s Globe, 2010 and 2011); 55 Days (Hampstead Theatre, 2012); #aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei (Hampstead Theatre, 2013); Drawing the Line (Hampstead Theatre, 2013); Doctor Scroggy's War (Shakespeare's Globe, 2014); Lawrence After Arabia (Hampstead Theatre, 2016); The Blinding Light (Jermyn Street Theatre, 2017); The Shadow Factory (NST City, Southampton, 2018); Jude (Hampstead Theatre, 2019); Cancelling Socrates (Jermyn Street Theatre, London, 2022) and Churchill in Moscow (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, 2025).
He has collaborated severeal times with other writers (e.g., Moscow Gold with Tariq Ali, RSC, 1990), and has adapted various classics, particularly Strindberg's Dances of Death (Gate Theatre, 2013), Miss Julie (Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, and Jermyn Street Theatre, London, 2017), and Creditors (Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, and Jermyn Street Theatre, London, 2019). He has also writtne for the screen, most notably on the BBC1 drama series Spooks (2001–05; BAFTA Best Drama Series, 2003).