the play was originally written as six half-hour episodes for bbc radio 4, and a pilot episode was recorded, but radio 4 decided not to go ahead with commissioning a series from two unknown writers. instead, the script was turned into a stage play, and was first performed in newcastle in the black swan court in 2001 with a cast of just five, including the two writers, who all had to play multiple parts. after this, the play was revised for performance at the edinburgh festival fringe and with a slightly different cast ran for two weeks in 2002 at "augustine's". it has since been performed a few more times, notably at cambridge university in 2003, highgate in 2004, guildford (surrey) in 2007 (where it was voted best event of the year by the students of the university of surrey), adelaide australia 2009, and several more productions have been proposed.