Widely studied at A level, "Across Oka" was first staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1988. This volume also includes a chronology of Holman's life and work, the background to the play, a discussion of themes and characters, and a selection of production photographs.

"Robert Holman is the quiet man among modern British dramatists. But his new play is an outstanding work that sings with truth" (Michael Billington, Guardian) Eileen and her grandson Matty, 16, travel to Russia to stay with scientist Pavel and his son Nikolai, 14, on the Oka reserve where they are to take part in an experiment to save the Siberian Crane from extinction. When the two boys, Matty and Nikolai are given the responsibility of travelling into the wilds, the clash of their personalities, education and experience provokes in Matty an appalling destructiveness. Across Oka was premiered at The Other Place (RSC) in 1988."Robert Holman's Across Oka is about metamorphosis and manipulation in the lives of passionate, gentle people in north Yorkshire and eastern Russia, the first opent to all experience, the second constrained by the discipline of an enclosing state The new play is alive with theatrical confrontation and generosity of spirit." (Michael Ratcliffe, Observer)