Helen and Danny are spending a quiet evening at home when Helen’s brother Liam barges in, bloody and in shock. He claims to have interfered in an attack, but as the story unfolds, more and more inconsistencies come to light and the evening takes a dark turn. The couple is faced with uncomfortable truths about Liam as well as themselves. Locked in their own living room, the trio’s loyalites are tested. Everything is challenged: familial ties forged in a rough childhood, fear of the world lurking outside their home, and choices which make everyone question what they’re truly capable of.

The play observes urban violence fearlessly without turning it into a spectacle, but by looking at it as a corrosive force that breeds racism and bigotry in ordinary people, turning everyday life into a moral battleground. Dennis Kelly intertwines class divides, xenophobia and the paralyzing fear of the other, masterfully erasing the lines between victim and perpetrator, innocence and guilt. „Orphans” creates a ruthless tension, asking the question of how far are people willing to go in order to protect their families – and how high a price will they have to pay when it comes to their own ethics and morals.