Two’s Company and Karl Sydow, in association with Tilly Films, present

Don’t Destroy Me

By Michael Hastings

Directed by Tricia Thorns

“All children whose parents have been busted up by war – never are the same. We’re a special breed.”

August 1956. It’s a day of excitement. Young Sammy comes to live with his father and stepmother, 15 years after they escaped as refugees from Nazi Europe. Raised from infancy by an aunt in Croydon, he now comes to London to work as an apprentice. But the young man’s arrival – eagerly and nervously anticipated – disrupts the secrets and settled ways of this rackety Jewish household and their neighbours, in ways nobody could have foreseen.

Michael Hastings “writes with an intimate knowledge of Jewish working-class life” (Jewish Chronicle, August 1956)

Tricia Thorns’ Two’s Company is acclaimed for bringing a series of forgotten masterpieces to London theatres, in sparkling new productions. Their world premiere production of Michael Hastings’s only unperformed play, The Cutting of the Cloth, was described as “A production so exact you can smell it. The thrill is in the documentary detail, marvellously realised in Tricia Thorns’ terrific production” – The Observer.

Other productions include London Wall (“rivetingly entertaining” -The Guardian), A Day By The Sea (“A joy” – Daily Express) and What The Women Did (“a complex and funny evening” – Time Out)


Two’s Company has brought a series of brilliant new productions of forgotten masterpieces to London theatres.

Praise for Two's Company:

★★★★ “A production so exact you can smell it. The thrill is in the documentary detail, marvellously realised in Tricia Thorns’ terrific production.”The Observer on The Cutting of the Cloth

★★★★ “This production directed by Tricia Thorns could not be bettered. The performances by the four strong cast are outstanding and the play remains a witty and devastating look at marriage, death and the meaning of life, and if that sounds that it is likely to be an evening of doom, gloom and despair think again. It is also very funny.”Reviewsgate on Bodies

“Hemingway’s writing retains its stark brutality, it’s often very funny and, thanks to a lively production from Tricia Thorns and a more-than-able cast, it’s occasionally rollicking good fun.”The Telegraph on The Fifth Column

“A first-rate revival of a play that with its ostensible shock-value in aspic, reveals subversions and a clever structure so unsettling we should all look in the mirror and wince.”Fringe Review – Must See Show on Staircase