By Phillip Ridley. Performed by Bubble Youth Theatre at the North Peckham Civic Centre.
Sparkleshark is set on the junk-strewn roof of an inner-city tower block.
This is the secret hideaway of Jake(14) where he goes to work on his stories. He’s interrupted by Polly (14), who’s more impressed with his stories than his rudeness, then by the trendily-dressed Natasha (l5) and Carol (14) who copies everything Natasha does and wears; finally, to his terror, up come his tormentors, the self-obsessed Russell(15), is cohorts Buzz and Speed (both 14) and Shane(16) who they all regard with awe now he’s left school for the outside world. Tough, trendy, heartless, they all think they know who they are, or need to be to survive. But they’re in for the biggest surprise of their lives.
When the girls try to protect Jake from the boys, he can only truly save themselves and his dignity by weaving his best story yet; and this life saver is so good that, despite themselves, they all not only want big parts in the roof-top enactment of its perils and mysteries, its trials and love quests, and its meetingw ith the Dragon Sparkleshark but will also find that both they and their world are magically and amazingly transformed forever.