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And
all the children cried looks like a play with a message. The writers
Judith Jones and Beatrix Campbell favour a style of 'gritty realism'
that is often disparaged these days. The play is set in a prison cell,
and is a dialogue between Myra Hindley and her emotionally disturbed
cellmate Gail, a frighteningly realistic portrayal by Gillian Wright.
The trouble
with docudrama is that it is hamstrung, in that it can not be seen to
be straying too far from the truth without losing credibility, while
fictional aspects appear as true. The result is polemic that lacks the
courage of its convictions.
Putting Myra Hindley on stage was itself a brave and controversial move,
leaving the writers open to the charge of exploitation and sensationalism,
but this is not just a provocative defence of free expression. When
it was written, And All the Children Cried was an intervention
into a national debate about Hindley and whether or not she should be
released from prison. The balance of the play can not help but be affected
by Hindley's death.
A broader theme is society's attitude towards women who kill. Some argued
that Hindley was not only being punished for the murders that she commited,
but for transgressing society's notion of women as caring and nurturing.
This argument does not have the resonance that it would have had thirty
or forty years ago. Women have been dragged from/fallen off their pedestals
- whether this is a victory for feminism is a moot point.
In her closing speech Hindley indignantly expresses her frustration
that her insights and knowledge in the ways of murderers and their accomplices
will go with her to her grave. This is a more contemporary issue. There
is an ongoing debate about whether convicted serial killers should be
encouraged to provide information that may be useful in the detection
and prevention of future crimes. This seems reasonable in the interest
of forensic psychiatry, but the spectre of the celebrity serial killer
looms. In our celebrity obsessed age, perhaps anonymity is the severest
penalty at society's disposal.
Till 7
March.
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