Jack Thorne

Jack Thorne’s plays for the stage include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre, London, 2016); The Solid Life of Sugar Water (Graeae and Theatre Royal Plymouth, 2015); Hope (Royal Court, London, 2015); adaptations of Let the Right One In (National Theatre of Scotland at Dundee Rep, the Royal Court and the Apollo Theatre, London, 2013/14) and Stuart: A Life Backwards (Underbelly, Edinburgh and tour, 2013); Mydidae (Soho, 2012; Trafalgar Studios, 2013); an adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Physicists (Donmar Warehouse, 2012); Bunny (Underbelly, Edinburgh, 2010; Soho, 2011); 2nd May 1997 (Bush, 2009); When You Cure Me (Bush, 2005; Radio 3’s Drama on Three, 2006); Fanny and Faggot (Pleasance, Edinburgh, 2004 and 2007; Finborough, 2007; English Theatre of Bruges, 2007; Trafalgar Studios, 2007); and Stacy (Tron, 2006; Arcola, 2007; Trafalgar Studios, 2007).

His radio plays include Left at the Angel (Radio 4, 2007), an adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (2009) and an original play People Snogging in Public Places (Radio 3’s Wire slot, 2009).

He was a core writer in all three series of Skins (E4, Channel 4, BBC America), writing five episodes. His other TV writing includes The Fades (2012 BAFTA for Best Drama Series), Shameless, Cast-Offs, This is England ’86 (2011 Royal Television Society Award for Best Writer – Drama), This is England ’88, This is England ’90 and the thirty-minute drama The Spastic King.

His work for film includes the features A Long Way Down, adapted from Nick Hornby’s novel, and The Scouting Book for Boys, which won him the Star of London Best Newcomer Award at the London Film Festival 2009.

Quotes

ograhamruddhas quoted8 months ago
It’s dark. Very dark indeed.

TOM lights a torch. A pathetic torch. But it’s almost blinding in this darkness.

As our eyes adjust, we take in his surroundings… He’s underneath a table. A small table that he’s had to squeeze himself underneath of. The table is in a large dusty attic.

TOM is an ordinary-looking teenager in his early teens. He is wearing the hand-me-downs of a cooler older brother. But he wears them slightly wrong. Too many buttons done up on a polo shirt, that sort of thing…

TOM. I first had the idea that I was the son of God, when I was nine.

I’d just read the Bible.

Not the whole Bible, not cover-to-cover but – you know… extensive dipping… Anyway, the more I read, the more it sort of made sense, that I was the second coming. Jesus Christ. Two.

The sequel.

I mean, my mum a virgin? Well, looking at her you could certainly believe so. Check. Dad not my real dad? We never did have much in common. Check. Me leading a sad-and-tortured-life-where-everyone-hates-me-and-I-have-to-die-for-the-good-of-humanity-who’ll-be-sorry-when-I’m-gone?

Check.

But then I tried to cure a leper – well, a kid with really bad eczema… it didn’t work. He just bled a lot. I tried to – rip some of his skin off and…

Beat.

I first got the idea I might have Aids after a particularly aggressive sex-ed class – you know, the sort of class where your teacher just repeatedly shouts –

Spotlight on a harassed-looking teacher, in a tatty-looking blazer. He’s spitty.

MR WILKINS. You must NEVER have sex. Never. Ever. Ever.

Spotlight off.

TOM. I mean, talk about premature, I hadn’t even persuaded a girl to kiss me yet. But he always was premature, Mr Wilkins.

Spotlight on MR WILKINS inflagrante (tastefully) with a blow-up doll.

MR WILKINS. I’m not normally like that. I’m a good lover, really I am… oh, don’t look like that…

The blow-up doll looks back, the same open-mouthed expression on its face it always has.

TOM. So Aids – me? Unlikely! But then I had a tetanus shot and it took them ages to find a vein and I thought – well, maybe I had a mutated version of Aids – the sort where you don’t get to do anything good to catch it. ‘I caught
ograhamruddhas quoted8 months ago
mine through drugs.’ ‘I caught mine through sex.’ ‘I just, well, I just sort of got it.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because I’m unlucky.’

There are loads of other examples – the time I thought I’d developed a cure for blindness in biology class because I seemed to be able to see things with my eyes closed – the time when I thought I may have inadvertently started a war between Korea and the Isle of Sheppey with some stuff I’d written on my blog – the time when I thought I’d accidentally castrated my dog –

A dog howls in the distance. TOM frowns.

Okay, well, I sort of did castrate my dog. That’s a long story… my point is this…

It’s normal to be centre of your own world, in your head, star of your… and me… I don’t just star in my head, I kind of suffocate all other forms of life. But this – finally – I’ve got the opportunity to actually be some kind of star and I’m –

TOM hears something. He freezes and turns off the light. He indicates to us silence, takes a deep breath and holds it.
ograhamruddhas quoted8 months ago
TOM. They’re a – having a funeral downstairs.

I’m supposed to be there. Down there. With them.

I mean, it’s not like a guy missing his own wedding – I mean, it’s not my
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