When Craig was two he moved with his family to the up-and-coming suburb of Mill Hill in North West London and attended first Radlett Prep and then Haberdashers' Aske's in Elstree.
For Time Out reviewer Lucy Powell, the latter was a "neat, tightly choreographed play" inspired by "Japanese comic theatre, commedia dell'arte and The Arabian Nights".
Directed by Tim Supple, it premiered at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2005 and earned Craig a Most Promising Playwright Nomination at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards.
Nicholas de Jongh's review for the Evening Standard commented that the play "fascinates because it reflects the complex passions of Jews in more than two minds about what Jewishness entails".
[6] Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph praised its "theatrical vitality" and "vividly drawn characters", commenting that its "vaultingly ambitious" approach suggested parallels with recent work by Mike Leigh and David Edgar.
Its two main characters are a historian, Elena, who denies that the Nazi gas chambers existed, and Myles, a human rights lawyer who defends her freedom of speech when she faces prosecution under new laws.
Claire Allfree in Metro identified "verbal sparring" as the play's essential feature and argued that "Craig raises some excellent points about historical imperialism and the problem of maintaining individual freedom within a culture that believes in religious tolerance".
[9] Susannah Clapp of the Observer, who considered the play "adroitly phrased and arresting but too neatly patterned", commented that "Ryan Craig has carved out a distinctive dramatic niche for himself by writing debates about 21st-century Jewishness".
The cast of Bijan Sheibani's production included Amanda Hale, Paul Hickey, Edward Hogg, Sinead Matthews, Justin Salinger and Jason Watkins.
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph noted that "Bijan Sheibani's production of Ryan Craig's English version has a sober, documentary feel" and argued that it is the characters' "stark words ... that make the evening so chilling".
Reviewing it in the Evening Standard, Henry Hitchings described it as "meaty", a "portrait of a volatile family ... spanning the years 1968 to 1982" that "pictures social change through the prism of commerce" and takes particular interest in "toxic tribalism".
[19] Craig's comedy Games for Lovers premiered at Waterloo's Vaults in the summer of 2019, directed by Anthony Banks, with a cast including Evanna Lynch and Billy Postlethwaite.
[23] In the Daily Telegraph, Dominic Cavendish characterized it as a "slow-burn but incendiary-feeling" study of white male privilege and cancel culture, reminiscent of David Mamet’s Oleanna.