Archives - April 1991

THE ENQUIRY
by Charlotte Hastings

Produced by Cheree Hill and Paul Mellor

THE PLAY

Modern-day drama, set in a women's open prison. After a vicious beating at the hands of other prisoners eight weeks before her release date, Kate Walmer makes a half-hearted attempt at suicide. The assault forces soon-to-retire governor Laura and her assistant Frances to launch an enquiry to investigate it, although the assumption is already that Kate was punished for having killed one of her children.
Things are not that simple, though, and the enquiry panel - including the Padre and prison doctor - can get nothing from any of the prisoners. There is even a strike by the inmates to demand that the enquiry be dropped. Old lag Marcy is finally persuaded to speak, and the officers discover that Kate was attacked by their most unstable and violent prisoner, Gow, believing that Kate was flirting with Gow's girlfriend Valentine. It is Valentine who tried to organise the strike to cover this up.

There the matter might end, but for Kate's husband Tom's regular visit. Seeing the state Kate is in, he confesses the truth to Laura and Frances. Their third child was terribly brain-damaged, with no hope of ever recovering, and the strain of looking after it was tearing the whole family apart. But Kate did not kill the child - Tom did, out of mercy. She took the blame so he could keep his job and provide for their two sons. The long guilt has proved too much for him and he insists on leaving his signed statement with Laura to do with as she has to.
Frances pleads with Laura to destroy the confession: this close to the end of Kate's sentence, to start the process of destroying Tom's life, too, is too much for her to bear. Laura, older and wiser, does not seek to judge the right or wrong of it, but intends to uphold the law. It may be that Frances' appeal has reached her, though: and as the play ends she is about to report the results of the enquiry to the Home Office...

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