A room without a view, ten floors up in a block of flats on a ‘sink’ estate. The door is bolted from the outside. Inside a young man lies low. A girl holds the last of the trust he can muster…

We live in a climate of fear and nowhere is it more apparent than in society’s treatment of young people. The media is awash with headlines about young people terrorising the streets, copious column inches, TV news, and radio phone-ins about alcohol abuse, family breakdown, sex and violence, and our children’s easy access to it.

Dereliction, a new play by Chris Cooper, is a study of freedom in a climate of fear, alienation and anger.