Fog: (Modern Plays)

'Dis is a war zone, ya get me? An' we gotta take 'em all out, see?' Fog is about two families: one white and dysfunctional, the other black and aspiring. Fog and Lou were put into care as young children by their soldier father, Cannon, following the untimely death of their mother. Ten years later, Cannon returns, expecting to reassemble his family around him. But he feels a stranger in this 'new' England of broken promises. And nothing could prepare him for the damage that abandonment and an inadequate care system has wreaked on his kids. He desperately tries to repair what has been broken, but is it all too little too late? Fog is a stunningly powerful and gritty play which confronts important social themes with a clear-eyed lack of sentimentality. The play looks at the care system and the effects on the children placed there. It explores the difficulties we face in trying to reconnect with people who have been absent throughout childhood, and the inadequacy of communication: words are used as loose sticking plasters to try and patch up and hide the exposed wounds of fractured relationships.

About the Author :
Tash Fairbanks is a writer, theatrical performer and playwright. She trained at E15 Acting School, and was a founder member of the lesbian feminist Siren Theatre Company. Her playwriting includes commissions for Theatre of Thelema, Women's Theatre Group, Graeae, Theatre Centre and Charter Theatre Company with such works as Mama's Gone a Hunting, Curfew, From the Divine and Wash Your Hands Please. Toby Wharton graduated from RADA in 2007, and his acting credits include: Days of Significance (RSC), Ajax (Riverside Studios), Transient (Pleasance/Shunt Vaults), Home (Tristan Bates Theatre). Film and TV includes Post code, Silent Witness and The Bill. He has also taken part in many readings and workshops at The Royal Court, Young Vic, Soho, and National studios.

Review :
The dialogue is exquisite. It does more than simply jump off the page, it leaps out grabs you by the throat and smacks you around. A truly original well-written piece that succeeds in doing what I always want from a good play. To learn. To think. To laugh. To cry. To feel. -- Roy Williams OBE, playwright Beautifully pared down, the rhythms of life are really there. The writers have given a voice to those who have none. -- Jane Boston, Senior Lecturer and Head of International Voice Central School of Speech and Drama A play like this helps to dash the misconceptions that children get into the care system because of something they have done wrong. A moving experience to watch as the story unfolds and one that needs to be put there for the public to see. -- Pam Redican Principal of Wings School, Cumbria and Nottinghamshire. Winner of the Pride of Britain Award for her dedication to the education and care of 'difficult' young people Uncompromising depiction of urban life..this is a raw punchy piece. -- Henry Hitchings Evening Standard Powerful new play ... The dialogue continually bubbles with unpredictable comic life ... Agonising and funny at the same time. -- Paul Taylor Independent A gripping new chamber play. A disturbing portrait of a feckless white youth. The storyline's fragmented glimpses are intriguing. -- Kate Bassett Independent on Sunday A raw edgy piece. Punchy dialogue..a sharp understanding of displaced people. The play's portrait of a social system that offers care but no protection leaves an uneasy aftertaste. -- Michael Billington Guardian A bruising sad play. Very good on the painful relationship between father and son. A painful, promising play..it ends wisely and movingly. -- Sarah Hemming Financial Times The dialogue is always lean and accurate. Absorbing, unflinching. -- Dominic Maxwell The Times A play written - rather exceptionally - by a writer/performer in her sixties and an actor in his twenties. Clarity of intention..that thoroughly grips. -- Dominic Cavendish Daily Telegraph Unique as a piece of new writing. Fog has a tenderness and subtlety. A subtle study of lives adrift. -- Caroline McGinn Time Out Hard-hitting and devastatingly pointed writing. -- Martin Newman Huffpost Culture A fierce heart breaking snapshot of the concrete horizons and posturing demotics of inner-city London estates. Effortlessly captures the under-siege mentality of inner-city culture..in a play you wish was twice as long. -- Claire Allfree Metro (London) There is real craft in this writing collaboration. -- John Nathan Jewish Chronicle A bruising lyrical short about teenagers in London whose quality and impact suggests that 2012 in London's only wine bar theatre, will be as impressive as it was in 2011. -- Caroline McGinn Time Out A thumping, emotionally fraught and brilliantly written play. Emotionally devastating. -- Aleks Sierz Stage At its best, the language of the play feels like it's been inhaled through a water pipe and then exhaled to the beat of drum 'n' bass. It burns, it stings, it makes your blood tingle...there's an intensity and a rush to the dialogue that gives the work its emotional punch...Fired up by this linguistic energy, Fog is sometimes frightening in its anger and desperation. It rushes along like a roach flushed down a plughole. A story that leaves you stunned by its violence, and its terrible sadness...Fierce and terrifying. -- Aleks Sierz Arts Desk Funny, powerful and very, very real, it is also mesmerisingly sad..masterful writing put(s) Britain's care system on trial in courageous new play. -- Martin Newman Mirror A painful, promising play, raising the thorny issue of fatherless boys and of young care leavers and their difficulties. -- Sarah Hemming Financial Times The dialogue continually bubbles with unpredictable comic life. A collaboration made in the vicinity of heaven. -- Paul Taylor Independent 'Fog' is unique as a piece of new writing. Tash Fairbanks and Toby Wharton's (play) benefits richly from the verve and faux-yardie argot of youth and the poignant wisdom of experience. Aching and explosive. -- Caroline McGinn Time Out Funny, powerful and very, very real, it is also mesmerisingly sad. -- Martin Newman Mirror