The Boy on the Swing

Joe Harbot is a graduate of the Royal Court Writers' Programme and has had work performed at the Royal Court, Young Vic, Soho Theatre and Southwark Playhouse. He has worked with a number of new writing theatre companies, including Headlong, Paines Plough and Nabokov. His first play, The Boy on the Swing, was staged at Live Theatre Newcastle, directed by Jeremy Herrin, and again at the Arcola in 2011. Potholes was shown at Theatre 503 and was longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2013.

The Boy on the Swing portrays an individual in the throes of a corporation with intimidating authority and an almost inexplicable leverage to trap and injure. Upon finding a mysterious business card labelled 'Talk to God' in the street, protagonist Earl Hunt comes into contact with the Hope and Trust Foundation which offers the chance to meet God - for a price. After submitting credit card details during a bafflingly threatening phone interview, Earl proceeds to a visit to the Hope and Trust office full of unfathomable power games which alternate between geniality and intimidating menace. The promised meeting with 'God' arrives when, in a dingy room, Earl finally comes into contact with an old man of 85.From the pseudo business-evangelical spiel of the Hope and Trust Foundation to the frugal simplicity of the man presented as God, Joe Harbot's range and pace is cleverly broad and elusive. From a set-up which subtly suggests the mercenary exploitation of the lost and the lonely, the play's arc turns to darker and stranger themes of metaphysical significance.The Boy on the Swing is an enigmatic piece of writing, sometimes baffling and sometimes blackly funny. For all its bizarre and perplexing notes, the play has a smart, dark sense of humour and grapples with abstract, preternatural questions.

Playwright Joe Harbot is a young playwright with a distinctive, quirky voice which drives his unique style of writing and which is both unnerving and hilarious for the audience