CAMERON’S too scared to leave the house, Jakey’s stuck in a violent gang and Kerrie is letting her dreams of becoming the next Isambard Kingdom Brunel slide to cater for their drug-addict mother.

Then they find a goodbye note in the Frosties packet and realise even a cocaine- addled parent is better than none.

So begins Blackberry Trout Face, the usual gritty fare of Liverpool writer Laurence Wilson (Urban Legend, Lost Monsters, Tiny Volcanoes).

There’s no chance of this 20 Stories High production talking down to its intended teenage audience.

It’s packed with hard-hitting subjects – gangs, bullying, prostitution and child carers, as well as drugs – and Wilson’s not exactly generous with moments of comic relief.

There’s plenty of humour in it, for sure – some of it deserving of the odd guffaw – but when the darkness comes it’s relentless, and it becomes hard to see how the characters will ever find a way back to the light.

They do – mostly – but don’t expect an ending filled with rainbows and bunny rabbits, unless they’re the dead ones Jakey has scavenged for his siblings’ tea.