RIPE language flew through the air as I walked up the stairs to the studio room above Brockley Jack Theatre.

Some of the slang was new to my naive ears, but I knew they weren’t good as these two young saarf London women had a proper barney, mate.

Fortunately – and I wasn’t certain this was the case because of their intensity – it was just the cast of No Rhyme in the early stages of rehearsal.

No Rhyme is a real-time drama set in the toilet of a nightclub in a world where disrespect can mean more than a life.

Playwright Melanie Pennant is a Lewisham mother-of-two and No Rhyme is her first play. She submitted it to Brockley Jack’s fourth annual Write Now festival, which asks for submissions of previously unperformed plays from south Londoners, and was one of three chosen.

The Magic Hour by Martin McNamara and Bump by Vinay Patel will receive staged readings during the festival which started on May 4 and runs until May 25.

But No Rhyme is being put into production for two week runs.

Director Kate Bannister said: “It was a really high standard. Each year we get a large amount of scripts and we have been very fortunate.

“Often they have been writers’ first plays and that’s doubly nice.”

She said No Rhyme was a play that the judging panel kept coming back to.

She said: “The play feels very current. There are four very interesting characters.

“The dialogue is very engaging, very punchy.”

“Melanie had not heard it read before we went to rehearsal. We get to talk to the writers to bring the wording to life and work with them to develop the piece.

“Melanie is local, this is her first play, we are a local theatre and hopefully it will appeal to a lot of people from the area as well.”

No Rhyme runs at the Brockley Jack Studio Theatre from Tuesday to Friday between May 14 and May 25. Tickets cost £13 or £10 concessions and it is suitable for over 14s. Go to brockleyjack.co.uk.