'You've got these twinkling eyes, all bright and dancey… They will love taking that from you.' Tia has been in care since she was three. She can't stand her foster mum, and her friends keep letting her down. But when she meets AJ, a charismatic older man, he seems like the answer to all her problems. At first, he is. But AJ has done this before, and after the gifts and compliments come the threats and abuse. When fourteen-year-old Katie moves to town, a chink of light appears in the darkness that's threatening to swallow Tia. Firebird is a gripping, unflinching drama about grooming and exploitation, exposing the systemic failures that allow it to continue. Phil Davies' play premiered at Hampstead Theatre, London, in 2015 before transferring to the West End. This revised edition is published to coincide with the play's revival at Southwark Playhouse, London, in 2026, presented by Double Telling and directed by Marlie Haco.
"'Remarkably potent... what's remarkable about Davies's writing is how little it hectors and how lifelike it feels. It's angry, it's witty, it makes degradation vivid and infuriating'"
The Times
"'Short, sharp, and appropriately nasty… Davies' writing also brims with a fierce energy'"
