Cracked Tiles by Lorenzo Novani

Ages 14+

Powerful, real-life-inspired, one-man play about a son searching for his father…in a fish & chip shop.

‘His father seemed like an ordinary, hard-working man but Riccardo knows that somewhere in the grease-stained walls of his crumbling inheritance - a run-down fish and chip shop- the truth is hidden. However, time is against him, the shop is about to be sold and it won't give its secrets up easily. Battling demented customers, family curses, and supernatural agents of the state, join him on his tragicomic journey as he excavates the ruins of the family business and revisits the past to uncover the truth about his mysterious father.’

The play is inspired by the author's experience as a teenager when his father’s strange behavior led to suspicion that he may be hiding dark secrets. These episodes were framed as psychotic breakdowns, but at the time, the notion that his father was fragile, broken and out of touch with reality was an equally difficult pill to swallow. In this sense, Cracked Tiles is about the mystery of a father and the confusion of a child. It's been described as ‘Bitterly honest, powerful and moving’ (The Scotsman) but it’s not without levity: the central story is moved along with farcical comedy inspired by many of the colorful characters Lorenzo encountered during his time working in his family's real-life fish and chip shop. Cracked Tiles is a tale imbued with authenticity: both its tragedy and its comedy.