Laughing Boy
'So much magic. So much love. So much laughter. So much work. So much rage. And so many tears.'
Connor is, well, Connor. He loves buses, Eddie Stobart and Lego. He also has learning disabilities. When he dies an entirely preventable death in NHS care, his mum, Sara, can't get a straight answer as to how it happened.
But Sara and her family won't stop asking questions and soon an extraordinary campaign emerges. Demanding the truth, it uncovers a scandal of neglect and indifference that goes beyond Connor's death to thousands of others.
Sara Ryan's impassioned, frank and surprisingly funny memoir Justice for Laughing Boy is adapted for the stage by Stephen Unwin. It was first performed at Jermyn Street Theatre, London, in 2024, in a co-production with Theatre Royal Bath.
Stephen Unwin is a playwright and theatre director, whose other plays include All Our Children (Jermyn Street Theatre), which was acclaimed as ‘brave and challenging’ by The Arts Desk, and ‘a gripping battle of words’ by the Guardian.