Gloriously raucous rites-of-passage drama set in Romford Market

'You've got to talk to them son. Listen to them. Look for a way in. You're a handsome bloke - they'll love you. Give me a year and I'll teach you everything I know.'

There's an art to selling stilettos and you'd better grasp it. Learn a good wind-up, learn the pull of cash, learn drugs, learn sex, and run wild with the market monkeys. Stay sharp in the ruthless world of Essex traders. Romford Market, 1985. This boy has everything to learn.

A spectacular, savage, gorgeous yarn which brings a market jungle to the vast Olivier stage; a tale about the time Mrs Thatcher said we should embrace the marketplace; a story about losing your innocence. And your cherry.

Following the critical success of his new version of Ibsen's The Wild Duck (Donmar Warehouse 2005), David Eldridge's Market Boy premieres on the National Theatre's Olivier stage on 25 May 2006.