Match Day at Arsenal, a wake in a Highbury pub, and a night in Rowans feature in a day in the life of an Islington grandmother.
24 (Day) is staged at The Almeida with a 100-strong community cast aged 17-80 - alongside two professional actors.
It follows pensioner Liz (Jean Woollard) who takes a life-affirming trip around Islington with her delivery driver grandson Mark (Kwami Odoom).
It's April 21st, 2023, the day table-topping Arsenal played a dramatic 3-3 thriller with bottom of the league Southampton at the Emirates Stadium.
Like the scoreline, Jenkins says "this play is as unexpected, exciting and frentic as a football match, you don't know what's going to happen next."
Arsenal fan chants mix with ABBA songs as Liz keeps a hospital appointment, attends best friend Jackie's wake in The Bank of Friendship Pub in Blackstock Road, and visits Highbury Fields.
"There's lots of music, I've tricked them into doing a musical," says Jenkins, who grew up in Seven Sisters Road and attended Hornsey School for Girls.
"It's a funny, I hope moving, but also completely farcial road trip that feels like a whirlwind, and exploits the liveness of theatre. Most road trips are across vast American landscapes, but this takes place in North London where characters that pop up in the morning might turn up again later.
"I wanted to subvert the chaos and anarchic energy of a mad day out play, which is usually for teenage characters, but give that to Liz."
The 45 minute scene in Rowans in Finsbury Park is Jenkins' love letter to the bowling alley, bar, arcade and dance floor that "feels like this whole world."
As Liz learns she has secondary breast cancer, and takes in her friend's funeral, we also discover her husband Eddie has dementia.
"It's a rom-com but instead of young love, it's about the enduring love between Liz and Mark. It's also about loss, grief, and remembering people as we knew them," adds Jenkins.
Woollard is a 71-year-old former child actor from Camden, who hadn't been on stage for decades until she appeared in Jenkins' play as part of The Keyworker cycle at The Almeida last year.
"She was so funny and heartwarming that it gave me the idea to base this play around her," says Jenkins.
"I have her being so active and alive - very different to the way we usuallly see over 60s characters. The story of Jean taking a small part in a community play, then having a full length play written specially for her because of her brilliant performance, is amazing."
The community production is a partership between All Change, Cardboard Citizens, and Arsenal In The Community and has involved months of workshops, auditions and weekend rehearsals.
"It's been fun and joyful, people have formed relationships and are now all best friends. It's a lovely mix that's representative of North London. So few things feel truly diverse, but this does."
24 (Day) The Measure of My Dreams runs at Almeida Theatre from August 3-5.
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