Title: Heroin(e) For Breakfast

 

Duration: 75 Minutes

 

Synopsis:  Can heroin put the Great back in Britain? Three flatmates battle Marilyn Monroe, cultural identity, and snowflake mediocrity to save us all. Heroin(e) for Breakfast

represents what is sick about Britain itself - its delusion, its emotional poverty, its inability to face its losses, and ultimately its destructiveness. It’s also hilarious! And grim.  And amazing! And nihilistic. It's a bit like shooting up heroin… don’t try it, kids! Be passive, sit back, and judge our heroes’ wild adventures cos you’ll never end up like them… 

 

Cast: 4

 

Awards:

Winner: Fringe Review Outstanding Theatre Award 2009 

Winner: Holden Street Theatres Award 2009

Winner: Adelaide Fringe Best Theatre Award 2010

Nominated: Adelaide Fringe Best Performer Award 2010

 

Selected Press:

 

‘Heroin(e) for Breakfast is quite astonishingly accomplished, so beautifully written, staged and acted that it takes one's breath away. Shocking and breathtakingly sad.’ The Sunday Telegraph

 

‘Heroin(e) for Breakfast is a stonkingly good play by Philip Stokes. So many critics have left the venue visibly distressed that the theatres are now inviting reviewers into their office for restorative tea and hugs after the show.’ The Observer

 

‘A production that surely outshines Transporting in its theatricality and message. A powerful, flamboyant drama on the destructive cycle of heroin addiction. A modern Fringe classic.’ The Stage

 

‘This play goes without a hint of fear into dark and difficult territory, without moralising, seeking truth and finding much in one of the finest pieces at this year's Edinburgh Fringe.’ Fringe Review

 

‘The piece speaks of national identity, wasted youth, family ties soured beyond salvage and the relentless misery of drug abuse, but it does so in a way that doesn't let go of your attention.’ The Scotsman

 

‘An astonishingly intelligent piece of work. It's postmodern leanings toy with theatrical convention, openly mocking the removed, coldly academic manner that middle-class patrons adopt while watching theatre. Sexy, funny and yet truly horrible, Heroin(e) for Breakfast is a production simply bursting with ideas.’ Fest Magazine

 

'Powerful monologues and witty symbolism steer this performance far from any drug glorifying grunge worshipping morality show. The excellence and honesty of the acting distils Heroin(e) for Breakfast into an intense, exhilarating piece of theatre.’ Edinburgh Evening News

 

‘Stokes's script and direction takes risks in an unpleasant subject, but those risks ultimately pay off in a wonderfully provoking, if not completely soul destroying, production which makes for compulsive viewing.’ The Stage Australia

 

‘The audience has little alternative but to strap in for the ride. Theatre's power and all its possibilities are here. Scathing, bleak, funny and real, and a little too close to home. Don't miss it.’ The Adelaide Advertiser

 

‘Using the delectable conceit of heroin arriving at the door in the form of a platinum blonde in a white Marilyn skirt, the seduction to the lower depths begins. This play is a view of not-so-cool Britannia. Not so much look back, but look up your arm, in anger.’ The Australian