At 17 years old and about to sit the exams that will hopefully send him off to a good university, Jack seems to have it made but when he comes home from school one day with his shirt covered in blood, all that is set to change. Initially trying to pass it off as a nosebleed, then a set-to with some kids from the rough school over the way, we soon find out who is responsible and why they’ve done this – a video of Jack and his girlfriend Cara getting jiggy with it has appeared online, only she’s not his girlfriend any more and so it looks like Jack has been trying to get even with her.
Of course, it is nowhere near this simple and Fritz plays into the uncertainty of the mood by never letting us meet Jack, instead we see everything through the eyes of his parents Di and David as they battle through general disbelief, parental protectiveness and liberal do-goodism. The play’s most interesting section comes in this split between doing the right thing for their son and doing the right thing per se, the divide in where they see their responsibilities lying being endlessly thought-provoking and the lengths that each parent will go to to achieve their aim dramatically most satisfying indeed.