Mucky Kid

Does someone who committed a horrific crime as a child deserve a second chance as an adult? That’s ostensibly the question at the heart of this striking debut play by director-turned-writer Sam Potter.

But as recaptured prison escapee Maggie – who killed a girl when she was 10 – recounts her hours of freedom to a psychiatrist, it becomes clear that ‘Mucky Kid’ is less about moral judgements and more an unsettling portrait of a disturbed woman-child caught dangerously between fantasy and impulse.

The play revolves around Maggie’s ceaseless revision of events as her psychiatrist challenges the truth of what she says. So, we get several versions of her and fellow escapee Naomi’s encounter with friends Jason and Derek, and – ominously – Paige, a little girl she meets in a park.

Potter’s directorial background shows in the way these scenes come together seamlessly to evoke Maggie’s splintered perspective on the world, as an improbable romance with Rob Witcomb’s hapless Derek gives way to shards of violence and anger. The dialogue is blunt, darkly funny and rings true.

Sonya Cassidy is superb as an agitated, giggly Maggie, her tale-telling filled with wish fulfilment, middle finger defiance and shuddering self dread. Potter suggests she’s suffered abuse but the picture isn’t simple; Maggie isn’t straightforwardly reducible to victim or monster.

Against a stark, polythene covered set – somewhere between a crime scene and a hazard site – James Farrell’s gripping, hour-long production unfolds with pace and power, driven by a script that marks Potter as a playwright to watch.

By Tom Wicker