Bones

Mark is 19 years old, and he is not a human being. He is a label. Scum. Filth. Ned. Chav. Thug. He's a member of the vast swathe of human detritus rotting on a hellish housing estate in a dying city. And he is standing over a tiny, defenseless baby, covering its little nose and mouth with his hand. So that it can't breathe.

Bones is the explosive debut production from playwright Jane Upton. Set in contemporary Nottingham amid a backdrop of profound social deprivation, this short monologue is a dark, unremittingly hopeless exploration of family dysfunction, violent youth culture and a very real, very much ongoing, human tragedy.

And yet for such a bleak piece, it is a surprisingly compassionate play. But it's not naïve. Mark, our protagonist, is a nasty piece of work with absolutely no redeeming features. The world wants nothing to do with him, and for very good reason. What Bones seeks to do is explain him: to show why he is violent, why he is angry. Its central premise is the idea that no child is born evil. It asks us to care about Mark and it does so in a way that is believable, powerful and quite genuinely heartbreaking.

Moreover it succeeds, which is in no small part due to a superlative performance from Joe Doherty. Despite spitting rage and skinhead aggression, Doherty makes Mark vulnerable and small. Behind the mask, he shows Mark for what he is: a helpless little boy who's lost his mother.