The Sugar Syndrome by Lucy Prebble

Lucy Prebble is most recently known for her hugely successful plays Enron and 2019's A very expensive poison, but her professional career started in 2002 with her play The Sugar Syndrome, which was produced the following year, winning her several awards.

In a sentence, the play is about the struggle to connect in real life. The central character is Dani, who likes to go into chatrooms, essentially looking for people as damaged as she is.

Dani is a ‘recovered/recovering’ bulimic, who in one of her chatrooms has been mistaken for a boy by Tim, who is in his 30's and has a criminal record for paedophilia. They arrange to meet, and when they do so, while initially disappointed to realise Dani is not a Danny, Tim builds a friendship with her. Hereafter the central story does not take the perhaps expected turn. Instead it is Dani who pushes the boundaries with Tim, flirting and making jokes about his desires for children.

Meanwhile, in another chatroom, Dani has met Lewis, whom she then physically meets, with the sole purpose of having sex – which they do. Lewis then finds out about Tim and becomes jealous, eventually confronting Tim and then Dani and realising there is no future, if he really thought there was, with Dani.

The parts with Lewis are less interesting. He is easy to dismiss – without an engaging backstory that pulls the reader in. Dani and Tim's scenes are far more engaging, though it is an unflinching read. Prebble chooses not to offer any judgement, only observation and an exposure of both characters’ struggles.

Underlying all of this there are intense scenes between Dani and her mum, which show a mother and daughter failing to connect, but trying.

The play offers a fleeting noughties nostalgia with dial-up internet and chatrooms, but the rest stands the test of time – it could be written today, it is about today…

However, while it remains current, relevant, and broadly speaking well-written with wit among the darkness, it is challenging with its explicit references to sex and paedophilia, and in many settings this will be too controversial a piece to stage or explore.