The play is set entirely in the middle of the night in the caretakers storeroom of a school in the North of England. Spinner is an intelligent boy but a dreamer and storyteller and is acting as lookout for a robbery for Slap and Bree, two school dropouts and petty criminals. Everything is being managed by Monkey, who left the school a few years earlier and is now terrorising the neighbourhood. Spinners friend Cassie is trying to persuade him not to take part in the robbery and to stand up to Monkey but Spinner is too frightened of the consequences.
Many stories are told about the caretaker, who is believed to be unhinged and to have killed his wife or at least led her to commit suicide. Spinner has brought an axe with him for protection.
The attempted robbery goes wrong and some of them get caught by the caretaker. What will the caretaker do and will Spinner need to use his axe?
The play gives a realistic representation of the pressures on teenagers, particularly in poorer, rougher areas where conformity with their peers may lead them into casual crime. The second half is genuinely tense and, particularly at the end, though-provoking. Well worth seeing.
