The House They Grew Up In

by Deborah Bruce

The present day. A residential street in South East London. The house where reclusive siblings Peppy and Daniel were born is now stuffed full of everything they have ever owned. This hoard, their eccentric appearance and rampant garden hedge, set them conspicuously apart from others on their road. When young Ben visits from next door he is simply looking for friendship; but what happens next challenges everyone's idea of neighbourliness. The House They Grew Up In is a tender, dark and funny look at a co-dependent relationship between a brother and a sister, and how they cope when the world bursts in on them. It explores how, in an age of anxiety, we live alongside those different to us. Premiered at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in July 2017.

Genres: Plays

139 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 13, 2017

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd and not entirely satisfying play about two misfit siblings, the brother of whom is, I guess, supposed to be 'on the spectrum' (he has some savant qualities), while the sister is OCD and a hoarder. The crux of the play is that the 8-year-old neighbor boy keeps coming over and eventually the brother is suspected of being a paedo. Much of the dialogue struck me as being artificial and the ending is a bit twee, but I'd like to see what the playwright has done elsewhere.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...