Shook

‘He’ll look different. My little boy. When I get out. Like… to the picture I’ve got in my head. Be like meeting him all over again. A whole new start.’

Instead of GCSEs, Cain, Riyad and Jonjo got sentences. Locked up in a young offender institution, they trade sweets, chat shit, kill time – and await fatherhood.

Grace's job is to turn these teenagers into parents, ready to take charge of their futures. But can they grow up quickly enough to escape the system?

Winner of the 2019 Papatango New Writing Prize, Samuel Bailey's Shook is a tender and honest play examining the young men society shuts away.

It was premiered by Papatango at Southwark Playhouse, London, in October 2019, followed by a UK tour.

Samuel Bailey was the winner of the Times Breakthrough Award at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards 2021.