FOOD FOR THOUGHT

In The Shitheads’, an original and provocative new Royal Court production, Stone Age cannibals come to life with sly, sometimes amusing modern twists, writes Louis Chilton

- Louis Chilton

Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court, London

There’s plenty to chew on in The Shitheads – not just raw elk meat and cannibalised brain matter. Though there’s a good amount of that too: for the paleolithic characters that populate Jack Nicholls’ thoughtful debut, acts of barbaric violence are just part of the prosaic everyday.

The Shitheads transports us to the Stone Age, where we meet a three-person family of cave-dwellers: capable and curious Clare (Jacoba Williams), her ailing father Adrian (Peter Clements), and younger sister Lisa (Annabel Smith), supposedly a teen but with a sort of infantile pluck - think Margaret O’Brien in Meet Me in St Louis. That she is played by a fully grown woman is but one blithe anachronism in a staging that’s full of them: characters speak in modern English, have modern names, and wear items of modern clothing; the cave set includes a freestanding electrical lamp and a floor compartment with various kitchen items. (A brief reveal of a Sports Direct mug gets one of the biggest laughs of the night.)