Description
Book SynopsisAbove a pub in North London, Phil is drinking and fighting off mild panic about his comeback gig. His manager's already dumped him and he's worried about finding a place to stay for the night too. As he laments his dwindling career, his supporters gather to wish him well. Craving success and celebrity too, Josh suspects his father of behaving very badly. With the time of the performance fast approaching, guilty secrets emerge that split the family wide apart. Tonight, Phil's career might not be the only thing in tatters. Comic and moving, Broken Lad is a subtle examination of masculinity in distress.
Trade Review"The most powerful element of Hooper's script is looking at how a life of disappointment is compounded by one's peers doing well. A lot of Phil's bitterness comes because his contemporaries broke into television and earned enough to have comfortable lives." - Reviews Hub; "It is important to show a huge demographic of the British public (fifty-something white men, but not those running things) on the stage and we get a glimpse of their ugly self-pity and the loneliness that provokes it..." - Broadway World; 'Set in the upstairs of a traditional English pub, the play is an analytical living room drama: different friends and family members of Phil dip in and out of dialogue with him and each other. It all begins playfully with an affable and cultivated relationship between a comedian and his gay friend, only to demonstrate as the drama continues how very un-jovial this is in actuality. As the play develops, we see the consequences of a man slowly unravelling, and the cracks of a dysfunctional family starting to show.' - Everything Theatre; 'Comic and moving, Broken Lad is a subtle examination of masculinity and virility in distress.' - London Theatre;
