In Arabia We'd All Be Kings

"A harrowing new play...just when it seems [IN ARABIA] will settle for the shock value of its raw and violent language and imagery, Mr Adly Guirgis begins to tie all his loose ends together in a grim and sad portrait of life on the streets." New Lenny is a recently released ex-convict. Daisy, his alcoholic girlfriend, craves a "real" life with a "real" man and abandons him at their local in favour of some cheap Chinese takeout. At the bar is Skank, a failed actor-turned-junkie, who is trying to outlast the rainstorm and get a buyback. De Maris, a seventeen-year-old gun-brandishing single mother wants to learn to turn tricks. She enlists the aid of Chickie, Skank's girlfriend, a young crackhead hooker. But the bar is about to be sold up as the New York real estate boom kicks in. Guirgis' cast of low life have "lack of self-pity" tattooed to their souls.Published to tie in with the Hampstead Theatre's production in April 2003, this is the second play by the writer of Jesus Hopped the A Train - "Shocking, shattering, stunningly well-written" (Daily Telegraph); "Guirgis airs metaphysical ideas seldom touched by British dramatists" (The Times).