On Tuesday 23rd of November, an in-script reading of Lucy Kirkwood’s play, ‘Maryland’ took place after school at Woodford County High School.

Lucy Kirkwood, a very successful playwright and a former student at WCHS, says that she wrote ‘Maryland’ in response to violence against women and the death of Sabina Nessa. Lucy published a comment to the public on her play saying: ‘This play was for many years a private conversation with myself. The horrific murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa this year have galvanised me into making it public. I hesitate to even call it a play when it is simply a howl, a way of expressing what I feel about a culture of violence against women, but I am sharing it because I wonder if it might express a little of what other people feel about it too.’

Lucy kindly relaxed copywrite on the script until the 27th of November for script-in-hand performances and year 12 and 13 English Literature students were invited to perform the play to their fellow students and follow it up with a discussion about the serious topics at hand.

Unable to make it to the performance, in a letter to the performers Lucy wrote: ‘Don’t be afraid to be fast and don’t be afraid to be funny - in life in general of course, but especially when performing this piece. Just because it is about the ways women are victims doesn’t mean we have to perform pain and fragility. The play is not about the horror of dreadful things happening to women and girls but about the horror that we have normalised that. It’s about asking an audience to recognise this horror too and the best way to do that is to surprise them with your refusal to accept that victimhood and your ability to make them laugh.’

One of the performers, Eysha A from Year 12, expressed her opinions on the performance and the play: ‘I found the Maryland performance really interesting, because I feel as though it’s such a taboo subject to talk about. To say the least, it is horrible that these situations occur so often, however, I think it is really good that this play is highlights that these situations shouldn't have to happen at all. The furies were very effective in making the audience ask themselves, why? Why does our society encourage women to actively prevent becoming a victim of sexual assault? Women's actions aren't the cause. So what is?’


‘I think the event as a whole was quite eye-opening, because it allowed us to speak openly about our experiences. We acknowledged that so many women feel the need to worry about their physical appearance as well as other things, just to keep themselves out of harm's way, and they shouldn't have to. The play had left us to think of ways that our society can improve, to make women feel safer, and to effectively spread the message that sexual assault is wrong.’

 

The combination of Lucy’s playwright skills and the students’ performance abilities came together to create an impactful performance of a play highlighting the problem of sexual assault and violence against women and to raise awareness about the issues that women face in their daily lives.