Alan arrives late to the palatial home of Gregory Fisher Franklin Heines and his wife Wex. Gregory is artistic director of Xanadu Cabaret Theatre in Seattle. Alan has been offered the position of Equity stage manager by phone, and has just driven up from Los Angeles to start work on a package production of Plaza Suite featuring the legendary comedienne Hermione Vana and her husband Duke Donahue. What he walks into is a cast of characters who drink heavily, lie frequently, scheme without shame, listen to no one, and generally take advantage of his eagerness to please. Among them is an attractive stage carpenter upon whom Alan develops an immediate crush, and his early instincts to flee are put on hold. But as he stays, reality turns surreal, lives turn inside out, and he ends up being given the theatre to do with as he pleases. 

Fried Prawns is second in a series of plays following the life of Alan Cravick. The plays can stand alone, but they are linked by small references and by Alan's progression as he grows from 19 to 46. The first play is Risotto (set in 1971) and the third and last is Soup (1998).