Following the success of her award-winning play Mogadishu, playwright Vivienne Franzmann returns to Liverpool with another explosive drama Pests. Following the fractious relationship of two sisters, and with sell-out performances at the London Royal Court, Clean Break Theatre Company come to the Playhouse Studio from Wednesday 28th to Saturday 31st May.

Pink loves Rolly. Rolly loves Pink and Pink loves getting bombed off her face. Sisters from the same nest; both trapped in a tiny rotting world. Both cuffed to a past that refuses to release them. One wants out. The other needs her in. Trouble is that when you complete each other, you’re nothing on your own.

Commissioned by celebrated theatre company Clean Break, Pests is the searing new play from Vivienne Franzmann (Mogadishu, The Witness) winner of the 2008 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2008. She developed the play during her time as Resident Playwright with the company, which has included a number of residencies in women’s prisons, secure mental health and community settings.

Using Franzmann’s unique ability to capture the poetic rhythms of slang dialogue, Pests deftly explores the claustrophobic world of its protagonists, and how a co-dependent relationship can harm as well help when addiction is part of the mix.

Clean Break was set up in 1979 by two women prisoners, with the aim of bringing the hidden stories of imprisoned women to a wider audience. Still the only women’s theatre company of its kind today, Clean Break continues to explore the complex theme of women and crime with a long-established theatre-based education and training programme.

The play is co-produced with Royal Exchange Theatre, which premiered Vivienne’s award-winning debut play Mogadishu in 2008, and Royal Court Theatre, which commissioned and presented The Witness in 2012.

Playing Rolly is Ellie Kendrick, whose roles have included Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare’s Globe, and the title character in the recent B.B.C. adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank. Sinéad Matthews plays Pink, whose recent credits include Blurred Lines at the National Theatre and Black Mirror – Be Right Back for Channel 4.

Tickets for Pests are available from the Playhouse Theatre Box office, by telephone on 0151 7094776 or online at www.everymanplayhouse.com. Tickets are priced at £12 and £10 on the Wednesday