'When I was a lad, little kiddie, I had this dream. And that was to burn down the world. Smash it up.' A dark and disturbing portrait of mental illness, and its effects on a young family. Barry and Mary are expecting a child. Barry is a bus conductor, but he'd like to drive the bus one day instead. His mother keeps telling Mary that Barry's not right, and that she should leave him. But Mary chooses to stick with Barry, for better or in fact for worse. Robert Holman's play The Natural Cause was first performed at the Cockpit Theatre, London, in May 1974. Although written after his earlier play Mud, The Natural Cause was Holman's first full-length play to be staged.