One Off

"If I owned Durham, and I owned hell, I’d rent out Durham and I’d live in hell"

Born in Denton Burn, Ric Renton had a troubled upbringing that led to him spending his young adulthood in prison

During a stint in solitary confinement, he declined a proffered Bible and on a whim, chanced it and asked for a dictionary instead

This choice afforded him an ability with language that would shape his life far beyond his station through writing

This is his story

Three young men Knox, Brown, and Shepherd pass their time in a prison with the highest suicide rate in the country

Energised by their friendship but with the walls around them getting smaller, haunted by the repeated pronouncements of another life lost, the arrival of a nightwatchman, Jock, offers Shepherd an unexpected way through the darkness

One Off is rich with emotion but sizzling with high energy and the blackest humour

REVIEWS

" ... powerfully affecting, deeply humane production' ~ The Stage

'The play’s raw intensity, its barbed wire humour, its characters' mix of brutality and vulnerability, the hot blood coursing through its veins and its sense of despair infused ultimately with a shot of hope make this - well, a one-off' ~ British Theatre Guide