“Christmas is a right frightening bastard. If you can survive it in here then there’s hope.”
I grew up in north Merseyside where one of the biggest local
employers was Park Lane, later Ashworth, secure mental hospital. I knew a lot of
people whose parents worked there and we were constantly reminded of the place
by the sound of the Monday morning alarm test, such a haunting sound which
always sounded alien and unsettling.
Ashworth became notorious after it emerged that an
atmosphere of sexualised bullying and intimidation was rife and it was one of
the institutions that inspired Pru Stevenson to co-found WISH, a voice for
women’s mental health in the criminal justice system. Pru worked at HMP
Holloway when she became aware of the high numbers of women nearing the end of
their prison sentence who were referred to special hospitals like Ashworth.
Women were transferred for a variety of reasons and they endured years of
additional incarceration beyond their original sentence… once you were in the
system it was very difficult to get released.
Treated more harshly than the men, highly medicalised and brutalised,
these women were victims of scarcely acknowledged injustice. Sarah Daniels
contacted WISH when she was writing this play in 1992 and worked with Pru to
create this uncompromising and deeply affecting work.
 |
| Emily Tucker, Amy McAllister and Evlyne Oyedokun |
This production, directed so ably by Will Maynard, gives us
nine characters played by three outstanding actresses, who show how
malleable the fourth wall can be when, completely in character they move around
the fullness of the Hope’s performance area playing straight to the audience
and interacting – always a danger – with the audience. I had a brief
conversation with Dee (Amy McAllister) about Dublin as she sat on the side-lines
of the hospital’s Christmas disco, out of her depth and genuinely frightened by
the evening ahead.
This is what I love about the Hope, you’re really involved
in the play and you can see the performance in the visceral and – yes –
immersive way. Human instinct over-rides imagination and, like me, you react to
Dee and not Amy which says so much about the actor’s skill and commitment in
this enthralling, beautiful and brutal play.
Beauty might be an odd word to associate with a play about
social injustice, chemical as well as physical imprisonment and physical abuse but
there’s dark humour and much satisfaction to be had in the genuine connection with
a message communicated with such sincerity.
 |
| The daily grind in Penwell: teddy bears, no picnic... |
Dee is one of three women in Penwell Special Hospital, a
secure mental institution who have previously been transferred from prison for
various offenses. She’s not neuro or socially typical and has paid the price
for being poor, abused and disadvantaged. She has hopes for parole but can she
hold it together in an environment almost designed to undermine mind and body.
Fellow long-termer, Claudia (Evlyne Oyedokun) has spent
seven years inside based purely on her inability to surrender after being
originally incarcerated for a relatively minor offence and then sectioned for
attacking the social worker who had come to tell her that her children would
have to remain in care a while longer. Now she has had to give them up for
adoption as she lives on alone.
The there is Ruth (Emily Tucker) the most disturbed of the
three and the one with the fullest backstory; a victim of horrendous abuse who
was jailed for attacking her step-mother. She is constantly at the mercy of her
medication and is clearly in intelligent as well as highly-damaged individual
in need of some real treatment…
 |
| Emily Tucker, |
Keeping order are Nurse Jackie (Amy too), a well-meaning
northern lass who has yet to be fully corrupted by the system and Sister
Barbara (Emily), highly competent and in control yet also the victim of her
husband’s physical anger: does abuse cause the conditions and inform the nature
of its containment? There’s also a new nurse, Sharon (Evlyne) who is learning the
ropes and gives the audience someone to identify with as we’re as horrified as she
is with each new discovery.
Things unravel around the hospital’s Christmas disco as Dee –
aiming for parole - attempts to “prove” her hetero-normative “sanity” by dressing
up and chatting to the male patients and having to listen to a man relishing
his talks of rape. Dee also talks to her guardian angel (Evlyne) as she is
punished with an increase in medication and it is genuinely distressing to see
her character literally unable to think straight, lolled in a wheel chair, all
vitality knocked out of her by the bluntest of chemical coshes.
 |
| Evlyne Oyedokun |
Claudia, as is the norm, is wrongfully sent to solitary and
later discovers her case notes; a series of exaggerated reports, motivated by
her race more than mental health, that show Sharon for the compromised
character she is. Then Ruth also receives a shocking visit from her mother-in-law
Helen (Emily) as her truth and potential salvation or doom is gradually
revealed.
By the end you’re rooting for all the characters and even
the staff who are almost as much the victims. It’s a stunning play with so much
intelligent writing all brought to life by these 3x3 performances.
A tip of the hat to Keri Chaser whose sound design set the
tone and sucker punched me with judicious use of Kate Bush… there may have been
something in my eye.
There are no longer women at Ashworth or Broadmoor… and one
hopes that things have improved elsewhere but, somehow, I doubt it.
Further details of WISH as well as the charity, Women in Prison, which provides support for women affected by the justice system can be
found on their websites. To, broadly paraphrase Foucault, we get the prisons we
deserve as a society but not the prisons we need as individuals… maybe one day
a change will come.
Until that time, plays like this are so vital for telling
those on the outside what “life” can really mean…
Head-Rot Holiday plays at the Hope until 22nd
December so get your act together and book tickets now from the website or thevenue.
IthankyouTheatre rating: ***** Mesmerising and deeply
affecting.
No comments:
Post a Comment