“He can’t speak.” “What, at all?”

Boy meets girl. Boy can’t talk to girl.
And a small asteroid has hit the capital city.

It was ridiculous. Impossible. But it happened. As London adjusts to life after an unthinkable disaster, in a small town far away, a young man called Vin finds he can no longer speak. Is it shock? Grief? Or something else?

While Vin's mum Vicky struggles with a loss of her own, his friend Rach is determined to help him find a way out of silence. But when Rach’s family take in a charismatic and articulate survivor, who thinks talking – or even singing – about your suffering is the way to heal, Vin’s plight is suddenly eclipsed...

In a world that celebrates self-expression, what happens to those who can’t express themselves? And what lengths will we go to to make sense of our sadness?

From award-winning playwright James Fritz (Four Minutes Twelve Seconds, Parliament Square, Ross & Rachel), LAVA is a play for the moment: a funny, tender and moving story about friendship and reconnection in the aftermath of catastrophe.

Fifth Word