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Director : Stuart Burge Script : Caryl Churchill Publicity : Crimes To Be Committed - A series of six specially commissioned Play For Tomorrow begins on Tuesday with Crimes. Set in 2002, against the background of the ever-increasing threat of nuclear war, it deals with future attitudes to criminal activity. Jeananne Crowley meets its author, Caryl Churchill: Like many only children Caryl Churchill grew up with a fair bit of attention being paid her by parents and teachers, which may go some way towards explaining why she has never suffered the crisis of confidence that seems to beset so many people when first they start committing themselves to paper. After Oxford, a degree in English and early marriage she began by writing plays for radio. "It was partly because I liked radio and listened a lot when I was a child and partly because radio was where you could get short, odd plays done, the sort of plays one now thinks are for the fringe or lunch-time theatre". Having had work performed at university gave her enough impetus, she says, to continue writing after her marriage. When the children were young we had to fit in precisely with their school hours". And for ten years she wrote almost exclusively for radio. It was not until 1972 that her first stage play was performed Upstairs at the Royal Court, a theatre she has been associated with ever since. Now she is probably best-known for her work there and for plays with Joint Stock (the Bill Gaskill / Max Stafford-Clark company) and the feminist theatre group Monstrous Regiment, for whom she began writing in 1976. It never occurred to her to consider herself a "feminist" writer. The movement made no impact on her at all until 1972 when, she says, "everyone was doing it," but by then she has been writing professionally for twelve years. "There was once a letter I got from somebody at the BBC being nice about one of my radio plays, saying you wouldn't know it had been written by a woman. It did give me a bit of a jolt as I was unaware of prejudice when I began and only gradually realised its existence. But by then, of course, I was beginning to get things done so it didn't stop me". When she switched from radio to theatre, Caryl's work changed. "Like a lot of writers I was shy and a perfectionist. I'd tend to try to get everything as perfect as possible before I showed it, so no one would see my mistakes or how embarrassingly stupid I was. Having to work closely with actors and a director instead of on my own really broke that down. Suddenly I had to let other people in on how my mind was working". She used to think too that writers had to make it all up. "Then I discovered you could actually research a subject and use what you found out". Thus, for Monstrous Regiment she wrote Vinegar Tom, a historically-based play about witches, and for the Joint Stock company Cloud Nine, dealing with sexual politics through the ages. Caryl has also written two plays for television. Her third, Crimes, directed by Stuart Burge, is set slightly in the future, 2002 to be precise, and concerns how early twenty-first-century society deals with what it considers to be its "criminal types". As Caryl points out, what society may regard as criminal twenty years hence may be considered law-abiding behaviour today. Inoffensive offences against the State, punishable in all sorts of futuristic Orwellian ways, is not a pleasant thought to conjure with, but Caryl found it fascinating to explore. "I wrote four monologues first, all of which could be thought of as being about crimes. One of them would seem at first not to be a crime at all, but seems to me to be far more hair-raising than any of the others". For the past seventeen years she's lived happily with her family in Islington and, although the impression is of a slightly chaotic existence, she must be possessed of ferocious self-discipline. Subject to the usual distractions she says she works in bursts. "There are large chunks of time when I don't do anything at all". Disarmingly modest, she doesn't think she has done as good work yet for television as she has for stage. "You're much more hard-pressed working for television. There's shorter rehearsal time and for me it's not as enjoyable, or at least it wasn't up to now". (Radio Times, April 10, 1982 - Article by Jeananne Crowley) . Cast : Julia Foster (Veronica), T P McKenna (Melvyn), Sylvestra Le Touzel (Jane), Peter Whitbread (Ron), Rufus Collins (Elliot), Stephen Sweeney (Bill), Dave Hill (Smith) and Donald Gee (Larry). Synopsis : The year is 2002. A time of controlled and restricted activity, over-populated prisons, and the ever-increasing threat of nuclear war. Notes : Music for the series was provided by George Fenton. Episodes were originally transmitted 9:25pm to 10:25pm on BBC 1.
Director : Peter Duffell Script : Peter Prince Cast : Robin Ellis (Sam Howard), Kate Harper (Rachel), Sarah Berger (Cathy), Corinna Reardon (Cathy As A Child), Constantine de Goguel (John), Julian Curry (Charvier), Stephen Grief (Shapiro), Gavin Campbell (Michael Gilbert), Delia Finch (The Television Interviewer), Charles Baillie (The Television Cameraman), John Hug (The First Policeman), Ian Flintoff (The Second Policeman), Julian Wadham (Oliver), Julia Gale (The Girl At The Party) and Adam Blackwood (The Boy At The Party). Synopsis : By 1999, Great Britain is part of a true European Community in the midst of a Euro-war. The play follows a small family unit - Sam Howard, Rachel and Cathy - over a period of twenty years, during which time it considers the political ideals of the youth in the 1990s, and compares them to the same in the 1960s.
Director : Michael Barlow Script : Michael Wilcox Cast : Anne Raitt (Morna Ridley), Malcolm Terris (John Ridley), Paul Antony-Barber (Willie Ridley), Jeremy Child (Lord Slaggyford), Simon Rouse (Colin Bayliss) and Terence Halliday (Tommy Coulthard). Synopsis : Is Coanwood CC really just a cricket club or a private guerilla army? Is their selection committee meeting being bugged by Blenkinsop CC. or the Forestry Commission? Is Morna Ridley a spy? And most important of all, will Coanwood CC beat Blenkinsop CC next Saturday?
Director : John Glenister Script : Tom McGrath Cast : Jimmy Logan (Joe Brown), Ann Scott-Jones (Agnes Brown), Gerard Kelly (Gary Brown), Lizzy Radford (Ann Brown), Russell Hunter (Sergeant Smellie), Sarah Thurstan (Able-Bodied Andrews), Gavin Campbell (The Newscaster) and Barbara Coles (The Scientist). Synopsis : The Nuclear Family consists of Joe (father), Agnes (mother) and two teenage children, Gary and Ann. Joe was made redundant in the mid-1980s, like so many other men, and by 1999 - the year in which the play is set - it is the children who are the breadwinners. Joe decides that the family needs a break, the first since Gary was a baby, so he makes plans to visit "Sea Bed 6" to spend two weeks on a working holiday.
Director : Bill Hays Script : Stephen Lowe Cast : Tracey Childs (Sheena / Angie), Stuart MacKenzie (Joe / Malcolm), Emily Moore (Kate / Mary), Neil Pearson (Adam / Peter), Shelagh McLeod (Diana / Paula), Francesca Gonshaw (Julie / Sue) and Michael Feldman (Tony). Synopsis : Time: 1999. Setting: A city tower block converted into a government-run "Youth Unit". The youths, at an age when they might be studying, training, working or protesting, have been "bought off" by the government - this being paid for by the "New Wealth" created by the development of the new microchip technology. The "shades" of the title are dark glasses, the donning of which enables the youths to pursue - each of them - his or her own dream, career or obsession.
Director : Ben Bolt Script : Graham Reid Cast : Denys Hawthorne (Cyril Brown), Derrick O'Connor (Lennie North), Bill Nighy (Connor Mullan), Gerard McSorley (John Bingham), Lise-Ann McLaughlin (June Crawford), Colm Meaney (Kevin Murphy), Susie Kelly (Colette Brogan) and Kenneth Branagh (The Student). Synopsis : Set in 2016, prior to the centenary of the East Rising in Dublin, the play takes place in Northern Ireland's one and only integrated teacher training college. As Easter approaches, a struggle develops between Cyril Brown (Principal of the College) and Lennie North (Security Director), whose belief is that security as a means of prevention is more effective than the education of the individual. |
The
series was produced by Neil Zeiger. Script Editor for the series was
Chris Parr.
Text © Matthew Lee, 2004. |
