Carthage - (Oberon Modern Plays) by Chris Thompson (Paperback)

About the Book

Carthage asks who should raise our children when even the systems designed to protect them can be abusive.

Book Synopsis

Tommy Anderson was born in a prison, and he died in one too. The last moments of his life are recorded on CCTV, and yet no one can answer the simple question: whose fault was it? His mother Anne blames Marcus, the guard who was supposed to be looking after him. Marcus, acquitted by the courts but tormented by his part in Tommy's death, wants the family's social worker to admit to the role she played. And social worker Sue can't work out when it was she stopped caring.

Piecing together a boy's life and death in care, Carthageasks who should raise our children when the systems designed to protect them can be as abusive as the situations from which they were rescued.

Review Quotes

A hard-hitting new piece of writing - a frank and unflinching study of the care system - It opens up a recognisable enough topic - the lives of young offenders and young people in care - in a straight up, witty and intelligent way... The writing is explicit, sarcastic and to the point - skilfully written - Carthage is an outstandingly executed piece of writing littered with honesty and frustration.
Everything Theatre

Chris Thompson's muscular debut play is a drama keenly concerned with questions of responsibility - The characters are nicely developed, and there's a vein of worldly wit in the writing.
Evening Standard

The play feels authentic, not surprisingly. More importantly, it has the moral ambivalence of good drama - a 90-minute play that takes you behind the headlines and shows that there are multiple sides to every story - a highly promising first play that leaves the audience to make its own deductions
Four stars - Guardian

About the Author

First-time playwright Chris Thompson works as a social worker. Over the last ten years, he has worked with young people in care, young offenders and in child protection, and currently works in young people's sexual health in the NHS. Writing with honesty and humour, he confronts the big question that has haunted him his entire social work career: What good did I actually do?" Chris Thompson is a Playwright on Attachment at the Finborough Theatre which premiered an earlier version of Carthage as part of last year's Vibrant A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, the Finborough Theatre's annual festival of new writing. He was invited to take part in the Royal Court Theatre's most recent Studio Writers' Group.