The Haystack

‘Yes, we’re geeks, yes, we sit at computers all day, yes, we barely leave Cheltenham, but we are still, when it comes down to it, spies.’

Neil and Zef are two twenty-something computer whizzes with questionable dress sense and a highly developed interest in video games and Netflix. They’re also the UK’s ‘National Defence Information Security Team’ - recruited by GCHQ for their sky-high IQs and ability to work quickly and discreetly, no questions asked.

With unfettered access to the world’s data and infinite powers of electronic intrusion, these unlikely agents are essential cogs in the national security machine. But when their window onto intelligence operations shows them more than they were meant to see, they begin to question their roles in a system whose reach is unlimited but whose safeguards are not…

Al Blyth’s play The Haystack is an explosive espionage thriller that challenges the idea that ‘if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear’, exploring how we can live freely when advances in technology outpace the law. It premiered at Hampstead Theatre, London, in 2020, in a production directed by Roxana Silbert.

‘A cross between Kafka, Hitchcock and le Carre, the play is a heady brew… a rollercoaster ride’
- The Reviews Hub

‘An enjoyable internet thriller… the plot is gripping, the dialogue snappy… a sharp contemporary play about the way we live and what we value’
- Financial Times

‘A dark, twisty love story with complex ethical and intellectual ramifications, fizzing with wit… a play that is genuinely for today’
- Telegraph

‘Searingly theatrical… John le Carre himself might admire the standout dialogue… This pacy, brainy surveillance thriller should be widely watched’
- Guardian

‘Grips like a vice… a whip-smart thriller’
- The Stage