‘He’ll look different. My little boy. When I get out. Like… to the picture I’ve got in my head. Be like meeting him all over again. A whole new start.’

Instead of GCSEs, Cain, Riyad and Jonjo got sentences. Locked up in a young offender institution, they trade sweets, chat shit, kill time - and await fatherhood.

Grace’s job is to turn these teenagers into parents, ready to take charge of their futures. But can they grow up quickly enough to escape the system?

Winner of the 2019 Papatango New Writing Prize, Samuel Bailey’s Shook is a tender and honest play examining the young men society shuts away.

It was premiered by Papatango at Southwark Playhouse, London, in October 2019, followed by a UK tour.

Samuel Bailey was the winner of the Times Breakthrough Award at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards 2021.

‘A fantastic debut… boy it punches home’
- Saturday Review, BBC Radio 4

‘One of the most important theatrical debuts of the decade’
- BritishTheatre.com

‘Both laugh-out-loud funny and brutally honest, catching you off-guard with touching moments when you least expect it… funny, down-to-earth, and with a lot to say’
- WhatsOnStage

‘A delicate and deliberately paced character study… the dialogue is bitterly funny… a moving and absorbing piece of work’
- The Stage

‘An entertaining and thought-provoking piece of theatre’
- Broadway World

Papatango New Writing Prize