“Yen” by Anna Jordan
Nottingham New Theatre

Anna Jordan's play “Yen” explores a childhood lived without boundaries and the consequences of being forced to grow up on your own. It was the winner of the 2013 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting.

The play is set in the present day, in the living room of a flat on an estate in Feltham, South West London. 16-year-old Hench and his 13-year-old brother Bobby live alone with their dog Taliban, playing video games and watching violent porn.

There’s no adult supervision, though their mother Maggie occasionally visits from her latest boyfriend’s place and passes out in a diabetic coma.

But then Jennifer, a practical, animal-loving Welsh girl, shows a concern for the neglected Taliban, and succeeds in taming both the dog and his semi-feral owners.

The play is shocking, and I mean that in a good way. Another incredible choice for the NNT. It's shocking the way that Maggie treats and speaks to Hench, and some of her words are like a smack in the face.

All four of these characters are victims, and I found myself feeling equally for all of the characters. Each one of them reacting to the way that they have been treated by their treatment of others.

The imagery, visual and hidden, also has shock value, the hidden more so as it activates your own imagination about what is happening behind closed doors.

The four actors really got into the specific characters and showed the pain they all felt in different ways, again some of it shrouded but always just bubbling under the surface.

William Tillett (Hench) shows the 16 year old as part child part adult. Let's face it he is the responsible one at the start. The child like obsession with playing electronic games along with his naivety around the more confident Jennifer, or Yen as her late father used to call her, is at odds with the responsibility he feels towards his younger brother. It's really sad though near the end when that brotherly love crumbles from Hench's side while Bobbie's love for his older brother is as strong. A passionate actor who you can tell has really got under the skin of his character and delivered a brilliant portrayal of this damaged teen.

Jonny Khan (Bobbie) also gave an incredible portrayal of the only just teen who has been forced to grow up due to not having the full rime love of his mother. When she decides to pop in, he over compensates his love for her in an immature way, but can you blame him. Another tainted and broken character with a jaded view of the world and women, but he has no other peer figure apart from his brother who watches violent porn with Bobbie in the same room. Like the other cast members Jonny has a real understanding of his character and brings out the "simple" side of the complicated Bobbie.

Eleanor Rickenbach (Maggie) has the opposite challenge to Jonny. While Jonny has to convince us that he is a thirteen year old, and he does, Eleanor's character is a thirty something mother of two, by two very different fathers. While she is a mother of sorts to Bobbie, she has a dislike for Hench, due to the treatment she received from Hench's father, and that dislike really shows in her actions and what she says. Maggie does turn it around though with Hench and there is a lovely ice breaking scene later on in the play between Hench and Maggie. Eleanor convinces us all of her character and the maternal tug of war we discover towards the end of the play.

Isabella Hayes makes her debut with NNT, and like so many other debuts I've had the pleasure of witnessing over the years, the confidence and natural ability is just wonderful to see. I don't know if Isabella is actually Welsh, but her accent never wavered. I believe her to be Welsh. As with the other cast members, Isabella has done her homework fir this character and the change from her first scene to the last shows the journey Jennifer has travelled and what she had been put through.

Directed by Ellen Dennis, which I believe is her Directorial debut, and like Isabella, what a debut! Ellen really shows us everything that the author wanted us to see and feel in this brilliantly thought-provoking piece of theatre.

As withe every NNT production the technical crew create everything else to evoke the emotions and feelings we are meant to feel. Lighting (Sasha Gardner) and Sound (Arthur Mckechnie), Produced by Ellie Roberts,

The play will affect you emotionally and I'm sure that you'll find watching these talented actors truly, what's that word again? Mesmerising.

And you know what makes this play even sadder? This situation is happening as we speak somewhere in the world every single day.

“Yen” is at the Nottingham New Theatre until Saturday 17 November 2018