A visceral play about friendship, teenage recklessness, futile ambitions and frustrated hopes.

Mudlarks is a tragic, beautifully realised play about three young men trapped at the wrong end of the river. On the muddy banks of the Thames, downstream from the bright lights of London, three boys hide from the police after a night of recklessness. Over the course of the freezing night their fears, secrets and dreams emerge, collide and combust revealing the desperate frustration of lives barely led but already ravaged. As morning dawns, their options diminish and just two questions remain: do they have the power to determine their own fates, or are they destined to sink into the mud?
Mudlarks heralds the arrival of an urgent new voice in British theatre. Essex-born Vickie Donoghue'spowerful debut exposes the culture she grew up with and sees on a daily basis. With brutal honesty she explores teenagers' impulse to dream, and its futility in a reality that has no space for dreamers.

"Donoghue’s remarkably accomplished play … her sharp ear for dialogue maintains a beautiful tension between comedy, tragedy and a desolate lyricism" - Telegraph

"Donoghue’s small but distinctive debut play sings with promise" - Guardian

"This is a play that believes in the transporting, if not transforming power of words; its language is fluid – rough and broken then racing to an unexpected poetry." - Financial Times