The Solid Life of Sugar Water

It had been a while. I was really nervous. I mean, it's not really like riding a bike. Sex. It's far more complicated.' Phil and Alice are in love – familiar, flawed, ordinary love. They are on a journey, but this journey doesn't have an A to Z. Jack Thorne's The Solid Life of Sugar Water is an intimate, tender play about loss, hurt and rediscovery. It previewed at The Drum, Theatre Royal Plymouth, and premiered at the 2015 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in a co-production between Graeae Theatre Company and Theatre Royal Plymouth. 'Forceful, thrilling, stunning… Thorne's script is fearless and finds shattering detail' Telegraph'Startlingly good... an adult play in the very best sense... gutsy, challenging, witty, deceptively delicate' The Times'Hits you squarely in the gut - it has a real sense of precision and meter, the tone sometimes funny, sometimes filthy, sometimes hopeful, sometimes utterly devastating... an intense, powerful, brilliantly written two-hander about sex, relationships and loss' The Stage'Heartbreaking' Time Out'Funny, poignant, arresting… a complex emotional watch, heartwarming and heartwrenching, sometimes simultaneously, but super smart too; great on gender gaps, better on life's unexpected turns and loaded up with minuscule wisdoms' FestMag'Inclusive and succinctly powerful... Writer Jack Thorne never ceases to stimulate and entertain... Disability isn't the core of the story, just another colour in the palette. The characters aren't measured against an ableist world but against each other... They are both complex, and not entirely likeable... The central event of the play is harrowing, but what I mostly remember is the snark and warmth of the characters and the tender last moments' Evening Standard'Hits you with such raw, uncomfortable truth that it stays with you... a deeply intimate play... extremely graphic, hyper-realistic and very funny... a piece of beautifully balanced writing... devastating... the explicit details of sex, bodies and birth, will be too much for some. However, there will be fewer plays this year that feel so intrinsically honest' Broadway World