Run (NHB Modern Plays)

Yonni is a seventeen-year-old gay Jewish kid. It's the last day of term and he's avoiding everything. The only person he wants to be around, think about, be about... is Adam. And as his night unfolds and falls into chaos - some of it real, some of it not - Yonni pulls us into his world. A world filled with school riots, first loves, beached whales, political demonstrations, sunshine, cinema, sex and rebellion. Set over one unforgettable summer and encompassing all of space and time, Run explores what it means to love, to lose and how to grow from a boy into a man. First produced at VAULT Festival 2016, the play transferred to The Bunker in March 2017, after a national tour. 'A quietly extraordinary piece of work ... artful, honest and deeply romantic, whilst still being devastating in its meditations on modern anti-Semitism' - Exeunt Magazine 'A masterful tale of growing up, falling in love, and loss in a time of turmoil... an intoxicating sprint from start to finish' - Grumpy Gay Critic

Stephen Laughton has worked with Headlong Theatre as part of their Headstart writers' programme. In January 2015, his play, Nine, was part of the PlayWROUGHT#3 Festival at the Arcola Theatre. Stephen has been involved with various theatres in the UK - he is an alumnus of the Royal Court's Invitational Writers' Group, the Skylines programme at Hampstead Theatre, and he was part of a series of development workshops with the Young Vic Theatre and SoundBites. His first play, Marina Abramovic is Staring at Me, opened Terra Firma Theatre's 2011-12 Boxcar Reading Series at the Railroad Playhouse in Newburgh, New York, before moving on to the Cell Theatre in Manhattan. His work for television includes Forward (Blacklisted Films) and Black Hill (Lime Pictures). For film, he is working on a script for emerging director Ryan Andrew's second feature film, The Lake. Stephen's short drama for young audiences, Merry New Year, was broadcast as part of a collaboration between Hampstead and the Roundhouse Theatres.