The Mad House

The Mad House explores the funny, dark, light, joyful and devastating aspects of being one of five children brought up on benefits by a single mother and having a big dream. Facing rejection after rejection, doubt from others and working crappy jobs to afford drama school auditions. “Growin up on a council estate int scary. Druggies don’t just walk around scowling at ya, eyeing up anything of value you have on you to rob it and sell it for a bag of smack. Well, some do, but most people on my estate are friendly.” Jamie Roberts is a conflicted teenager from Ings Road Estate in Hull. His life is spent in a box bedroom mainly writing poetry, revising and dreaming of someone who’ll never love him back. His obsessions include acting, Barbra Streisand, Spiders nightclub and Rachel Berry from Glee. He has four gobby younger sisters, a stress-head mum who gave birth to him at sixteen and a nana who is obsessed with death. Meanwhile, at the forefront of his mind is his dream of being a star, and he is determined to achieve it.