Review: Yen at Alphabetti Theatre

“An exceptional performance…”

Yen by Anna Jordan, Alphabetti Theatre

By Melina Turner-Deeks

Alphabetti Theatre is an award-winning theatre with the community at its heart. Situated in the centre of Newcastle, the theatre is one-of-a-kind in its commitment to making the arts accessible to everyone; featuring a multitude of pay-as-you-feel schemes and pricing categories, as well as providing a wide range of accessible options (including captioned, audio-described and relaxed performances offered as standard for at least a quarter of performances). The venue is incredibly welcoming with friendly staff and a lovely cosy bar stocked with local drinks!

Yen (written by Anna Jordan) won the 2013 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting and made its Newcastle debut at Alphabetti Theatre (directed by Connor Goodwin). It was produced by Divided Culture Co, a company that works exclusively with Northern creatives and strives to “use the arts as a medium for change”.

Yen is an unflinchingly gritty, yet tender, exploration of brotherhood and human connection set against a background of below-the-breadline poverty and neglect, with a lurking air of violence. Sixteen-year-old Hench (Adam Owers) and his younger brother Bobbie (Jonny Grogan), aged thirteen, live alone with their dog, Taliban. They must make their own way in this world, and the play examines ideas of childhood and adolescence without boundaries. The boys’ semi-absent mother, Maggie (Vickie Binns), drifts in and out of both their lives and consciousness, at times appearing only to pass out in the garden. Their life of video games and filth (both poor hygiene and unfiltered porn viewing) is interrupted by animal lover, Jennifer (Lucy Eve Mann), who appears at the door one day in an attempt to protect their neglected dog, and in turn finds the brothers as neglected and feral as Taliban. Her appearance heralds a turning point in their lives as they begin to confront their vulnerabilities and experience longing, love, and loss.          

The performance space was intimate, with a thrust stage, tiered seating and a small audience of 80. This intimacy was emphasised by the fact that the production was already underway as the audience took their seats, some even having to edge carefully around the bare mattress on the floor. The sparse set served to highlight the state of poverty that Hench and Bobbie lived in, with the PlayStation as the focal point to their lives.

Adam Owers’ portrayal of Hench was incredible; he really mastered the vulnerability of teenage awkwardness and the desire for human connection and affection. Owers managed to balance these sensitive emotions with a teenager’s shame and self-consciousness and the need to hide this very vulnerability. The complexity of emotions within this character was expertly depicted by Owers throughout. Jonny Grogan was excellent as Bobbie and succeeded in characterising the untameable thirteen-year-old; while highlighting the bittersweet – and misdirected – cravings for attention of a child left to raise himself.

The show also provided insights into the boys’ inner psyches via strobe-lit intersections, in which Bobbie and Hench displayed their feral and raw emotions untamed. This spoke to the animalistic needs of humans and their right to “a suitable environment, diet and protection from pain, suffering, injury and disease” as Jennifer argued when questioning the wellbeing of their dog, Taliban.

With flawless acting from all involved and a devastatingly raw script, Yen was a volatile production about vulnerability, fragility and unguided childhood with an underlying current of violence and toxic masculinity. An exceptional performance that will leave your mind lingering with the characters and their real-life counterparts that have fallen through the cracks in society.

The theatre itself is obviously a labour of love, with bountiful opportunities for creatives and a performance space designed to “ensure the development and improvement of the ecology of the performing arts in the region” (Alphabetti theatre website). If you’ve never visited this venue and want to support fringe theatre in Newcastle, then check them out!

Yen plays at Alphabetti Theatre until Saturday 20 September 2025.

Melina Turner-Deeks is a poet and self-confessed literature nerd. She currently runs literary workshops and bookclubs in North Tyneside as The Literature Lass. When she is not baking, parenting or reading, she loves being outdoors and connecting with nature. Find her on Instagram here or Facebook here.