What could seem like potentially distasteful subject matter is made humorous by dudley’s empathetic take on it. In the first act, he inserts little pieces of information that serve the dual purpose of developing character and illuminating a subculture. Dave’s best friend, Ashley, lets drop one such tidbit when she says that postal workers are “right cheap” when it comes to paying. Dave later reveals that he smokes menthol cigarettes to keep his breath fresh: “That way you don’t have to brush your teeth." In another scene, Dave and Ashley casually hang out at the laundromat in their underwear while they wash their clothes. All three instances display the characters’ sense of humor and their survival instincts. Both Dave and Ashley are homeless, and their biggest long-term goal - rarely achieved - is to make enough money each day for a hotel room that night.
Dudley introduces more humor in the form of Fran’s sister and roommate, Donna. She’s a layabout with a taste for drugs and booze - so much so that she has long since stopped going to work, and nested on the living room couch. She has everything she needs: food, television, even the necessary tools to shave her legs with. She also has a potty mouth and the will to use it, especially when talking about how she’d like to corrupt the local underage take-out delivery boy. Such a lack of inhibition makes for good laughs, as more audience members' jaws drop with every word that comes out of Donna’s mouth. That is, until Donna decides to act on her impulses and lure the delivery boy over. Which is precisely where Slag Heap starts getting into trouble.
When the delivery boy arrives at Fran and Donna’s flat, late in Act I, Slag Heap takes a sudden and unexpected turn towards the serious—one that is not completely earned. Nothing that has happened so far indicates that Slag Heap will turn so... well, heavy. It’s surprising, and a bit disappointing. dudley’s approach to his subject and characters has been so unconventional up to that point that it seems like a bit of a cop-out to include some conventional crisis. I assume that he is trying to inject some moral gravitas here (as if he suddenly realizes that he’s writing a play about prostitutes, and siding with them), but the shift in tone rings false. The outcome of Donna’s jailbait tryst also serves as a plot device to get Fran down to London, and it feels like dudley could have come up with a better one. (Wouldn't the fact that she just wants to leave Manchester—an economically depressed town—for somewhere a little more financially stable have been good enough?)
