As noted in a programme glossary, Sorter takes its title from a term that refers to a drug (usually heroin) that is used instead of money as payment for work. Written by and starring Richard Mylan, consisting of two interweaving and eventually interconnected monologues, it is an unflinching account of how opioid addiction shapes the lives of two characters: Example A, a young mother whose three children have already been taken into care and Example B, an A&E nurse who fakes prescriptions to feed his own addiction.
From the outset, these are almost unceasingly grim narratives. However, imbued with sympathy and compassion, Mylan’s script deftly avoids caricatures and cliches, resisting the need to arrive at neat conclusions. It demands greater empathy and understanding of its audience, even as it offers little hope or resolution for its characters. But, as if to decorate the dungeon with flowers, even in the dark there are also gentle lyrical flourishes that raise the text above kitchen-sink drudgery: telly smiles, the choreography of tug boats and cold turkey avicides.
