“A bleak and brilliant testament to a life of fleeting pleasure and diminished expectations … a play of sharp observation, a document of its times.” The Guardian Best friends Rita and Sue get a lift home from married Bob after babysitting his kids. When he takes the scenic route and offers them a bit of fun, the three start a fling each of them think they control. Andrea Dunbar's semi-autobiographical play, written for the Royal Court Theatre in 1982 when she was just 19, is a vivid portrait of girls caught between brutal childhood and an unpromising future, both hungry for adult adventure. Told with wicked humour, startling insight and a great ear for dialogue, Rita Sue and Bob Too offers an unwavering portrait of a world of limitations and urban desolation. Published for the first time in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Katie Beswick.

Do you think it would be better if you and me got ourselves steady boyfriends? Best friends Rita and Sue get a lift home from married Bob after babysitting his kids. When he takes the scenic route and offers them a bit of fun, the three start a fling each of them think they control. Andrea Dunbar's semi-autobiographical play, written for the Royal Court Theatre in 1982 when she was just 19, is a vivid portrait of girls caught between brutal childhood and an unpromising future, both hungry for adult adventure. Told with wicked humour, startling insight and a great ear for dialogue, this new edition of Rita Sue and Bob Too was published to coincide with director Max Stafford-Clark's major new production produced by Out of Joint, Bolton Octagon and the Royal Court Theatre.

Rita, Sue and Bob Too by Andrea Dunbar; A State Affair by Robin Soans

When it first came out, Rita Sue and Bob Too caused a sensation for it's frank portrayal of child sexuality in a Northern Town; the fact that the play was based on the writer's own experience only added to the furore. Max Stafford-Clark originally commissioned Rita, Sue and Bob Too for the Royal Court in 1982. Eighteen years later, he returned with a group of Out of Joint actors to the Bradford estates that Andrea knew. A State Affair is a record of what they found.

"A genius straight from the slums" - Shelagh Delaney (on Andrea Dunbar) Mail on Sunday

"This is life, the facts are there ... these things do go on - maybe not in every circle, but certainly in mine" - Andrea Dunbar, Yorkshire Post, 1986

Out of Joint's production of Rita Sue and Bob Too and A State Affair premiered at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre in October 2000.