The Boss waits for the boy whose parents he killed, in order to make him his son. The Boy pulls the trigger and misses. Still, this lost bullet flies through the play with devastating consequences, under the jaded eyes of two gravediggers and two bodyguards.

Using an expertly-crafted plot worthy of Goodfellas, Gaude carries out a meticulous study of human relationships and of the power of contract and rhetoric. A brilliant first play.

Battle of Will was part of the National Theatre’s ‘Channels’ project, a series of contemporary French plays read in translation at the Lyttleton in June 2002.