Play of The Custard Boys, compared upon publication to Lord of the Flies, opens at Tabard Theatre
10 Apr 2012

THE CUSTARD BOYS based on the novel by agency author John Rae and adapted and directed by the Bafta-winning Glenn Chandler, creator of Taggart opens tonight at the Tabard Theatre, London, and plays until 12th May.

Five London schoolboys are evacuated to a Norfolk seaside village, far from Hitler’s bombs. They want to fight for England but are too young to join up and too old to wait. They join the school army cadet force and learn to fire rifles, they form a gang and play at being soldiers. But it is not real war.

Sixteen year old John Curlew dreams of being a Spitfire pilot. Mark Stein is Jewish and a pacifist refugee who hates the war and longs for it to end. When these two boys are thrown together and form a romantic bond, their friendship splits the group and invites fear and prejudice. But it is a challenge to a rival gang which becomes the catalyst for a sinister train of events. While men die in their thousands overseas, in a small corner of rural England a group of schoolboys embark on a final war game which will lead ultimately to tragedy.

The Custard Boys was filmed in the 1960s as Reach for Glory and is a story of sexual awakening, loyalty and betrayal which was compared upon publication to Lord of the Flies.