About the Play:

Motortown is a full-length drama by Simon Stephens. The story of Danny, a young soldier, who returns to the home from a tour in Iraq determined to win back his girlfriend. But what greets him on his homecoming batters Danny's already fragile psyche and sends him on a downward spiral of violence and anguish. Motortown is about war and the culture that drives it.

Motortown tells the story of 24 hours in the life of a young soldier, Danny, who returns from the Iraq war isolated, desperate and hopeless. Unable to adjust to his hometown of Dagenham – the "motortown" of the title – which was once the largest Ford factory outside of Detroit. Now this forgotten suburb on the far edge of East London seems more of a 'foreign' land to Danny than his army barracks. He retaliates by bringing the terror and carnage of the war back with him. Danny is also a self-proclaimed "squaddie" (a member of the armed forces who thinks he's the "Gods gift to women"). He visits an old flame, buys a gun, and goes on a blistering road trip through the new home front. Chaotic and complex, powerful and provocative, Motortown reveals the horrifying gap between the rhetoric of war and its realities. (Little-known fact: Idris Elba worked night shifts for two years in the 1980s at the Ford factory in Dagenham.)

Motortown premiered in 2006 at the Royal Court Theatre in London and has since been produced throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia. The North American premiere was in 2013 at Steep Theatre in Chicago.

Cast: 3 female, 5 male

What people say:

"Motortown is like being run over by a 10-tonne truck that doesn't bother to stop to check that you are still breathing. It is in no way a pleasant experience, but is, I think, an essential one." — The Guardian

"It's a sensitive piece...." — Sunday Times

About the Author:

Simon Stephens is an Olivier Award-winning English playwright. He has written many plays that have been translated into more than 30 languages and produced all over the world. He is a professor of playwriting at Manchester Metropolitan University, an associate playwright at the Royal Court Theatre, the artistic associate at the Lyric Hammersmith in London, and the Steep Associate Playwright at Steep Theatre in Chicago.