Oskar is a bullied, lonely teenage boy living with his mother on a housing estate at the edge of town when a spate of sinister killings rock the neighborhood. Eli is the young girl who has just moved in next door. She doesn’t go to school and never leaves the flat by day. Sensing in each other a kindred spirit, the two become devoted friends. What Oskar doesn’t know is that Eli has been a teenager for a very long time.
The play premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London in November 2013 under the direction of John Tiffany.
The play provides examples of:
- Adaptational Backstory Change: The play heavily implies that Håkan was once like Oskar. In the original novel, he is a pedophile who has only been with Eli for a short while. The former interpretation was inferred from the Swedish film by some viewers (but not intended by the original author) and was later made explicit in the remake.
- Adaptational Jerkass: While Oskar had a strained relationship with his father in the novel, his dad is more abrasive and even rude towards him in the play.
- Adaptational Villainy: A jealous Håkan goes as far as to stake out Oskar in an attempt to kill him. Eli is outraged that he would try to give her the blood of her friend.
- Adapted Out: Lacke and Virginia are completely omitted.
- Adults Dressed as Children: In most productions adults are playing the roles of twelve year old characters (or characters who appear to be twelve).
- Composite Character: Similar to Let Me In, Halmberg's character is combined with Lacke's as the person who encounters Oskar and Eli at the end of the story.
- Gender Flip: The role of Police Commissioner Halmberg has no set gender and has been played by both men and women. In the original novel Gunnar Holmberg is a male. Similarly Oskar's dad's 'drinking buddy' has been played by a woman in some performances.
- Gender Reveal: Eli reveals to Oskar that their full name is Elias.
- Truer to the Text: In some respects. The play includes scenes that have not been present in any adaptation such as Oskar and Eli teasing the candy shop owner. This is also the only adaptation to explicitly have Eli identify themselves as being Elias (while omitting the backstory of their castration). The Swedish film briefly alluded to Eli's gender with a shot of the castration scar and the English-language versions just had her as a cisgender girl from the start.
- Water Torture: Some versions of the play have replaced the bullies trying to drown Oskar at the pool with waterboarding him instead.
