A second night in a row for me of kids in war paint - a quote on the website even calls Simon Stephens'
Herons "an inner-city
Lord of the Flies." I think this time around the cast actually
are 14 or thereabouts, director Sean Holmes having found some of them from his
Bugsy Malone (presumably this production's relatively short run gets around the child labour laws.) The setting is probably a London suburb, near a river or canal where Billy (Max Gill) and his father Charlie (Ed Gaughan) come daily to fish. But it's also where, almost exactly a year ago, Charlie discovered the body of a murdered girl, a classmate of his son's. Overweight, quiet and though apparently good in school, not street-smart enough to spot a bully targeting him, Billy is approached by the vicious Scott (understudy Louis Walwyn,) who says he has a message for his father.
