13 is about politics and the part we play or don't play in decision making. Faced with a society, set in the present where the banks call the shots and where people die in pointless wars, Bartlett questions whether it has to be like this.
The epic themes of the play, which mainly takes place in the present, but begins in 1968 and fasts forward to 2525, are explored through the prism of a dysfunctional family, whose break-up mirrors the impending ecological disaster.
Mike Bartlett is writing exciting plays about families. His debut play My Child which opened at the Royal Court showed his talent for accurately observing the terrible language of family breakup. Now he follows it up with a tale about a girl and the clash of cultures in her heritage. It starts with the girl's story and ends with that of another girl from a different world. The whole is a political allegory.