Anna Jordan’s Bruntwood Prize-winning play, Yen explores a childhood lived without boundaries and the consequences of being forced to grow up on your own.
Hench is sixteen, Bobbie is thirteen. They’re home alone in Feltham with their dog Taliban; playing PlayStation, streaming porn, watching the world go by.
Sometimes their mum Maggie visits, usually with empty pockets and empty promises. Then Jenny shows up.
Anna Jordan’s play Yen won the 2013 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting and was first performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, before transferring to the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016.
This edition of Yen was published alongside the Royal Court Theatre production in January 2016.
‘To say that Yen is absorbing would be an understatement… what’s most remarkable about Anna Jordan’s writing is the taut mixture of incipient violence and utter, heart-wrenching tenderness’
— Exeunt Magazine
‘[A] terrifying, witty, and compassionate study of the awful penalties of growing up alone and without boundaries’
— Independent
‘A savage study of two teenage boys abandoned by society… leaves a lump in the throat that won’t go down’
— Time Out
‘[A] brutal but tender study of brotherhood… the dynamic range of Jordan’s writing is extraordinary… achieves the uncommon feat of being difficult to watch yet easy to love’
— Guardian
‘Very impressive… [Jordan] has a great ear for dialogue’
— British Theatre Guide
Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting
