Following its success with Oh! What a Lovely War, Northern Stage brings its special style to Apples, the first adaptation of Richard Milward’s cult novel of the same name, which visits the Burton Taylor Theatre from next Wednesday to Saturday.

Set on a Middlesbrough council estate, the play is described as an “electrifying collision of Irvine Welsh and Virginia Woolf”. Streams of poetic, powerful and often funny words pour from the minds of six 15-year-olds as they face a world where adults are absent, drugs are everywhere, sex is desperate and life is terrifying and thrilling. Apples follows the lives of Adam and Eve, but they exist in a radically different Eden. Following the news her mother has lung cancer, Eve seeks distraction in a dizzying world of cheap booze, drug-fuelled parties and one-night stands. Though strong-willed, she is naively unaware of the risks that come with such an intense lifestyle. Plagued by OCD, an abusive father and his desperate love for Eve, awkward Adam is a relative outsider to such a world. Yet in his attempts to get closer to her, Adam is soon surrounded by the harsh reality of violence, drugs, teenage pregnancy, and a rape that threatens to destroy his chances with Eve forever.

The production is adapted and directed by John Retallack, the artistic director of Company of Angels.

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