Set in London's lower class suburbs, this is the story of a teenager who has discovered that he's gay and his love for another teenager who lives next door.

"If ever a play had the bloom of youth on it, then it is Harvey's marvelous 'urban fairytale' about two schoolboys falling in love on a grim southeast London council estate ... The gaucheness, the rush of excitement, and the inarticulate tenderness of young love are beautifully captured in writing of great truth and delicacy. Only the most irrational of homophobes could fail to be moved by it."—Daily Telegraph

"Deliciously upbeat ... seldom has there been a play which so exquisitely and joyously depicts what it's like to be sixteen, in the first flush of love and full of optimism. Truly a most unusual and beautiful thing."—Guardian

"An unfakeably truthful portrait of adolescent self-discovery, showing sensitivity and fun pushing up like wild flowers through the concrete crevices of a Thamesmead estate. This is the most heartening working-class comedy since A Taste of Honey."—Independent on Sunday

Premiered at the Bush theatre in 1993 Beautiful Thing was released as a feature film by Channel Four films in 1996 directed by Hettie Macdonald and featuring Meera Syal

Beautiful Thing explores pre-teenage homo-erotic sensuality and the frictions and intimacies of living cheek by jowl on a Thamesmead housing estate..