A Night at the Dogs - Matt Charman

This Dog, our girl, they're not expecting her to win. We'll never have that secret weapon again so just enjoy it. The minute she crosses that line first, it'll be like the whole world has changed for us... you might want to think about that a little before it happens.

On the evening of their first race, five men await the arrival of a dog that they hope will change their fortunes. But before they've even left for the track, a violent situation erupts and now the night of their dreams, along with the fate of an innocent man, hangs in the balance.

A Night at the Dogs, winner of the Verity Bargate Award 2004, premiered at the Soho Theatre, London, in April 2005.

Matt Charman's first play, A Night at the Dogs (Soho Theatre, London), won the prestigious Verity Bargate Award for new writers. Other productions include The Observer, directed by Sir Richard Eyre, and The Five Wives of Maurice Pinder, and Greenland (written with Jack Thorne, Moira Buffini and Penelope Skinner), all three of which premiered at the National Theatre, London, where Charman was previously Pearson Writer in Residence. Regrets received its world premiere at the Manhattan Theatre Club in May 2012, while his next, The Machine, will premiere at the Manchester International Festival in May 2013, before being staged at the Armory in New York. He is a recipient of the Peggy Ramsay Award and the 2008 Catherine Johnson Award for Best Play for The Observer.