In the Weeds - Paperback

by Joseph Wilde (Author)

"You name something, you change what it is, who it belongs to
People do it everywhere they go: new names
Not one of them even knows what we called this island before they came"

Kazumi is hunting a sea monster.

Arriving on a remote Hebridean island, he meets Coblaith, a local woman whose family have lived there for generations. When she offers to help him find the mythical creature that he believes drowned his family, their relationship blossoms. But there's something strange about Cob's obsessive affection for the lochs and something even stranger about the way the other islanders treat her.

Suspicious of his new lover, Kazumi's imagination gets the better of him. Could it be that Coblaith is the mythical creature he has been searching for? Or are humans the real monsters after all?

In The Weeds examines our relationship to the land we live on, its heritage and who it belongs to. A gothic thriller, it asks how remote communities can survive the dangers created by the tourism they rely on. This edition was published to coincide with the UK tour ahead of a run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022.

Author Biography

Joseph Wilde is a graduate of the Royal Court and Chichester Festival Theatre Young Writers Programmes, and of HighTide Festival Theatre's Escalator Playwright attachment. Joseph's first play, Cuddles, opened at the Ovalhouse Theatre in 2013. In May 2015 it toured nationally before transferring to New York. Other theatre includes: The Pier (Oxford Playhouse/Marlowe Theatre) and The Van Dyck Vanishments (Marine Studios/Milo Wladek Co). Joseph also writes for TV and radio: In 2014 his play The Loving Ballad of Captain Bateman won the BBC Drama Imison Award.