Have You Took The Bins Out?
23 July 2026
Drayton Arms Theatre
3.0 out of 5.0 stars
Have You Took The Bins Out is currently having its debut run at the Drayton Arms Theatre until tonight! The show tackles the lived realities of children growing up in foster care and eventually ageing out of the system.
A young couple moves into their first home, looking forward to their future together. When Zsazsa discovers she is pregnant and her parents get involved, a hidden past threatens to spiral out of control.
The play is presented through a series of short scenes, interspersing a past lived in unstable foster care with the current struggles with parenthood and wanting to provide more than was ever received. While there is a little humour inserted, this is a very intense exploration of bonding and trust issues created through an uncertain childhood in care, criticising an inefficient system as much as a lack of support once children age out of it. It’s quite an emotional roller coaster.
The presentation of the more intense scenes is quite confrontational and stylised, with heightened emotions created through bureaucracy and dry efficiency in a very interesting way. At times, these scenes don’t mesh together too well, creating a disconnected narrative that it not easy to unpick. It’s not clear why some of the stylistic choices were made, and some scenes feel unrefined and tacked on. Overall, the play feels a little like an early draft that needs some tightening up and clearing up of narrative ideas and objectives. There’s a lot to get stuck into, and so much potential to create a more rounded show with a little more editing, a little more of a clear direction.
