Another Bruntwood Prize winner comes down to London, to the Royal Court Upstairs
this time, with Anna Jordan's
Yen taking us to a dark council flat in
Feltham. 16-year-old Hench (Alex Austin) and his 13-year-old half-brother Bobbie
(Jake Davies) are shirtless, barefoot and filthy, fending for themselves after their
alcoholic mother Maggie (Sian Breckin) moved in with a new boyfriend who doesn't
want them there. They left their clothes at their grandmother's to be washed, but
she also ran off with a man so now they're down to one T-shirt between them for when
they make a special trip outside - usually to shoplift some food. Hench sometimes
has night terrors and wets the bed they share, while Bobbie has unspecified
behavioural issues and is meant to go to a "unit" in the daytime; but it's the
summer holidays and the boys spend their time in the flat drinking stolen beer,
playing
Call of Duty, watching porn and shouting at the dog, Taliban, they've
got locked up in a bedroom. It's Taliban who brings a new face to the flat when
concerned teenage neighbour Jenny (Annes Elwy) comes round to threaten to call the
police if they don't stop mistreating the dog.
