Archives - March 2000

FINGERS
by Ward Rutherford

Produced by Mike Liassides

THE PLAY

Thriller, set in the 80s in a remote country cottage. Stephen and Claire Dennis are given a cottage in the country by Stephen's parents, only a short distance away from where they live with Stephen's sister Gwen. Claire is unhappy about moving away from London and her sculpting, especially when they discover that the cottage has been used as a squat and left in a filthy state. Those worries pale quickly into insignificance, though, as a body is discovered in the house next door - the squatter, dead and with all his fingers amputated. Exactly as with a previous murder in the area. Then there is Gwen and her odd behaviour, Stephen's unexplained absences and the scary vagrant Edwin hanging around the cottage.

Aided by her friend Michelle, Claire forces Stephen to tell her about Gwen: living overseas with her unpleasant artist husband Jerry, Gwen and her young son Adam were involved in a terrible accident. Both Jerry and Adam died, but Gwen refuses to accept the loss of her son: when Stephen disappears it is because he is humouring her, helping to look for Adam and making sure that he is tucked up in his room.

Claire is angry with him, but relieved that there is nothing more sinister going on. Except that there have been sightings of the child and - finally - alone in the cottage, while Stephen is off helping Gwen, all the lights go out and Claire finds herself menaced by a boy stalking her in the darkness. Only Michelle's timely intervention saves her...revealing that Gwen is the killer. Completely mad and with a seething hatred for artists, Gwen has been slipping in and out of the persona of a murderously deranged Adam for years...

FROM THE GROUP

One of the more genuinely frightening plays we've done: it was all about creating a claustrophobic atmosphere. It started in darkness, with "Adam" chanting - Philippa doing a sterling job of putting on a childish voice and speaking from various points around the stage - then opened on to that filthy, horrible set. I still don't think Pam's forgiven me for making such a mess of her props!

From there on, it simply built the tension up: the murder next door, Gwen's peculiarity, Stephen's reticence and, at the centre of it all, Claire starting to wonder if the cottage is haunted by the ghost of a child or if she is going slowly mad. Michelle, her down-to-earth friend, was there to inject a dose of sanity - but every time Michelle left Claire would be more alone.

Those four parts were all highly demanding, with plenty of lines to learn and Cheree, Dave, Emma and Mary each did a fine job of bringing them to life. John, as Edwin the tramp, added colour and another dimension of menace to proceedings. Having a real person as Adam - rather than the taped voice I'd originally considered - was a much better idea: "him" moving around, apparently capable of getting anywhere at will, was altogether more convincingly terrifying.

The final scene, with Claire all alone in the dark and an unseen Adam taunting and threatening her, was a classic horror movie moment: and the twist when Gwen was revealed in all her hysterical lunacy, about to kill Claire worked even better than I'd hoped. We had the audience's rapt and tense attention throughout the evening and the sense of relief when it ended well was palpable. You really can't ask for much more than that with a thriller.

Mike - Producer

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