AND ALL THE CHILDREN CRIED. To 16 February.
London
AND ALL THE CHILDREN CRIED
by Judith Jones and Beatrix Campbell in collaboration with Annie Castledine
New End Theatre To 16 February 2003
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sat & Sun 3.30pm
Runs 1hr 30min + interval + discussion
TICKETS 020 7794 0022
Review Timothy Ramsden 28 January
Behind-the-headlines exploration of humans remaining in prison. This is a revised version of the play premiered in Leeds. Liz Cooke's skeletal prison cell design fits the more compact New End stage better than the Courtyard Theatre at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Annie Castledine's direction and the two performances remain as strong and the script, while not free of point-making on close inspection, has gained by the revisions.
Its two characters contrast: haughtily distant Myra Moors Murderer Myra Hindley and chattily untidy Gail, a composite of several women prisoners. Gail's the more showy part, and Gillian Wright faces a character who's a walking worst-case scenario. Gail, compelled by her mother to pimp her younger sisters for father and paying friends, later killed her own children to keep them pure.
Myra's no sucker for Gail's sob stories; there are women in here for protecting their children she tells her. Gail's friendship is based on need; she scurries from her bed, littered with junk food and mementoes, volubly trying Myra's patience, messing the fastidious woman's bed and carefully laying her head on Myra's shoulder.
Yet her cell-mate's present of a personal stereo's followed by Gail's bacchanale to 'I Will Survive' and the calm declaration they may be friends but she doesn't want to spend her life with Myra.
You're never more alone than in an imposed two-person relationship. But it's Sharon Maughan's sleek, precise Myra whose psychology is bound to be of interest: someone who gave herself to a murderous lover and so attained power over the likes of the mid-20th century children pictured sitting atop a wall on the programme cover. While Gail's looking to the flat she'll keep clean upon impending release, Myra knows she'll be inside for life. 'Punished but relieved of responsibility'.
Both characters have a lot to say: Myra, notably, only when left alone. But most eloquent is the silent image of the women, Myra coiled foetally on her bed, Gail simultaneously hunched on hers under a sheet, grasping for the comfort of crisps. Such a moment shows how widely apart are punishment and cure; how deep inside the lonely nightmare goes.
Myra: Sharon Maughan
Gail: Gillian Wright
Director: Annie Castledine
Designer: Liz Cooke
Lighting: Oliver Fenwick
2003-01-29 00:33:56