Iron

Written by Rona Munro

Wednesday 20th February to Saturday 23rd February 2013

Directed by Sharon Morris

AuthorRona Munro

Rona Munro

PlayIron

The play was first performed at The Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 2002. It then transferred for a sell-out run at The Royal Court in London.

The play is an intense psychological drama. Fay is serving a life sentence for murdering her husband with a kitchen knife. She is 15 years into her sentence when Josie, her 25 year old daughter, visits her for the first time. Following her mother's imprisonment, Josie was brought up by her paternal Grandmother whom she calls 'mum'. Josie has no memory of the incident, or of her father, and has come to uncover the past - a past that Fay wishes to forget.

The Bench Production

Iron Image

This play was staged at The Spring Arts and Heritage Centre (formerly Havant Arts Centre), East Street Havant - Bench Theatre's home since 1977.

Cast

Josie daughter aged 25Beth Evans
Faye mother aged 45 plusSally Hartley
Guard 1 male middle agedRoger Wallsgrove
Guard 2 female single motherHelen Young

Crew

Director Sharon Morris
Producer Sharman Callam
Stage Manager Di Wallsgrove
Assistant Stage Manager
Lighting Design Phil Hanley
Sound Design Phil Hanley
Lighting OperationJacquie Penrose
Sound OperationIngrid Corrigan
Costumes Jenny Jones
Set Design David Penrose
Programme Editor Derek Callam
Photography Sharman Callam

Details for Iron

The play was first performed at The Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 2002. It then transferred for a sell-out run at The Royal Court in London.

The play is an intense psychological drama. Fay is serving a life sentence for murdering her husband with a kitchen knife. She is 15 years into her sentence when Josie, her 25 year old daughter, visits her for the first time. Following her mother's imprisonment, Josie was brought up by her paternal Grandmother whom she calls 'mum'. Josie has no memory of the incident, or of her father, and has come to uncover the past - a past that Fay wishes to forget. These are unforgettable roles. There is a huge amount to learn, with some swift costume changes, and a loss of about 2 stone for Fay in between one scene. Spanx and a lot of breath holding will do the trick, I'm sure.

IRON was originally written to be played in a Scottish dialect but has been performed using a variety of regional accents. 'Pompey' would sit just as well as Glaswegian. The relationship between mother and daughter must be central to the action and we need to see how it grows and develops during the prison visits. The Guards' roles swing between portraying their relationship with each other and how they respond to Josie and Fay.

Director's Notes

I do love a play with atmosphere, an intelligent script and a big dollop of tension thrown in. When I saw Iron at the Traverse theatre in 2002 that was exactly what I got. From that moment on I was determined to direct it and knew, on my return to The Bench Theatre, that this was the ideal place to do it.

This is an ensemble piece. Both actors and crew needed to work together to make the play a success. The lighting is as important as the choice of lead actors and the music had to be just right. I hope you, the audience, are both absorbed by the story and moved by the emotions of 'Iron'.

My thanks go to the fantastic 'Iron' team

Reviews

The NewsJames George

It's not often you leave an amateur performance and know, really know, that you've been in the presence of great acting.

But The Bench's latest offering, Rona Monro's Iron, at The Spring this week, gives us just that in the shape of Sally Hartley as Fay - a murderer coming face-to-face with her demons and raising hell for her long-lost daughter.

Hartley's performance is both intricate in detail and writ large in the language of pain; the lost stare; the raging anger; the love - all there in the shambling, scorned lover whose husband may or may not have deserved his fate at her hands.

As daughter Josie, Beth Evans' performance jigsaws nicely into and contrasts well with Hartley's - their mutual frustrations striking sparks; the daughter needing to know the truth, the mother unwilling to give it.

Roger Wallsgrove and Helen Young as the prison staff make the most of what could be thankless roles - Wallsgrove as the calming voice of reason and Young's character introducing an unpleasant, jarring note of uncertainty.

Sharon Morris's direction is simple and effective and the whole is played out on a sparse but bizarrely claustrophobic set.

Go see. Until Saturday.

James George, The News, Wednesday 27th February 2013

Southern EchoKaren Robson

This was drama of the highest order.

RONA MUNRO's play, exploring the relationship of a daughter visiting her mother imprisoned for killing her father and the corrosive impact of the prison system, does not sound a particularly entertaining prospect.

But this would be a disservice to both the material and Bench Theatre's production.

Director Sharon Morris's was a perceptive and clear sighted reading of the work, producing a deeply moving piece and an absorbing psychological drama that transfixed, moved and disturbed the audience in equal measure.

Simply, even starkly staged, making a virtue of the small performance space to underline the theme of incarceration, this was action on a micro rather than macro scale.

The quartet of actors gave performances of intensity and commitment, with searing turns from Sally Hartley as Fay and Beth Evans as her daughter Josie.

Karen Robson, Southern Echo, Wednesday 27th February 2013

Remote GoatJill Lawrie

A powerful intense psychological drama

Bench Theatre are currently performing Rona Munro's 2002 powerful gritty drama "Iron" that focuses on a fractured family, criminal justice and a strong mother/daughter relationship. Munro is one of Scotland's most prolific female writers and her theatrical works cover challenging topics. When interviewed she once said, "what fascinates me is what redeems the characters".

Fay is a convicted lifer for a brutal murder and has served 15 years of her sentence without a single visitor. The strict rules, routines and lack of choices have left her a broken woman, vulnerable to the demands of the institutionalised guards so that when her daughter Josie suddenly turns up to visit she panics like a trapped bird. Her recently divorced globe-trotting daughter has very little recollection of her childhood and yearns to get to know her mother to fill in the gaps in her memory. After an awkward start the relationship develops, Fay's enjoyment evident as she recalls lost sensory delights. Josie's regular visits and blossoming relationship with her mother however is not popular with the warders who have themselves forged friendships with the prisoner. A situation arises whereby Fay is put on a punishment regime with all visits suspended, resulting in a self imposed hunger strike!

This extremely challenging drama is excellently handled by a very competent cast of four. Beth Evans excels as the lonely career woman Josie, so desperate to recover her lost childhood and forge a bond with her mother. Good performances too from the two warders Roger Wallsgrove (George) and Helen Young (the single mother - Sheila). Sally Hartley (Fay) takes on the demanding lead role playing the desolate guilt-ridden murderer. Barely off stage throughout she gives a powerful interpretation of their fragile bond of friendship where flashbacks and trivial causes of frustration can instantly isolate her once more.

This play gives significant comment on life imprisonment and the corrosive penal system, while sympathetically exploring emotional solitude - which lingers long after the curtain falls.

Jill Lawrie, Remote Goat, Thursday 21st February 2013

Production Photographs