Juvenile delinquency

Study the greats. That’s the advice to all budding playwrights. And there are few contemporary dramatists more worthy of appreciative scrutiny than Bruce Norris, whose savage and hilarious comedy, Clybourne Park, bagged the Pulitzer Prize in America before transferring to the West End where it stunned audiences with its macabre revelations about bourgeois attitudes to racism. But an apprentice writer analysing such an accomplished work will probably be overawed by its self-confidence and polish. Far more interesting to study Norris in an earlier phase of his development. Purple Heart, from 2003, was the first of his plays to be performed outside the United States.

The date is 1972. The setting is a crummy house in the Midwest occupied by a trio of trailer-park losers. Both details are unfamiliar. Norris specialises in up-to-date locations and in rich, well-educated characters ensconced in affluent neighbourhoods. With this play, he seems to be stuck in Sam Shepard’s world.