Evan Placey on Lifers and the treatment of an aging prison populace
Synergy Theatre Project are an award-winning company whose groundbreaking work engages with the penal system and those with lived experience of it. This autumn their latest production Lifers, set in a prison, comes to Southwark Playhouse Borough, and we were delighted to chat with writer Evan Placey about what promises to be a unique show.
Hi Evan. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us about Lifers. Firstly, can you tell us about the premise of the play?
Lifers is a funny and moving play about growing old in prison. It centres primarily on the relationship between a ‘lifer’ and a prison officer, and the difficult decisions each has to make when the prisoner, Lenny, starts losing his memory.
How did you come to work with Synergy on this show?
I’ve actually been working with Synergy across the last 15 years. They’ve produced two of my plays previously, a short film, and I’ve done lots of teaching for them in prison and with ex-prisoners. So we’re always in conversation about ‘what next?’ And having done two plays for teenagers together, we had a conversation years ago about the other end of the spectrum – old people in prison, and the project grew organically from there.
What was the research process like for you?
Exciting; full-on; challenging. I went into prisons to meet with older prisoners and lifers; to chat to prison officers; meeting with ex-prisoners, and with health professionals. The most exciting part was going back into prison with a script and getting a bunch of older prisoners to do a reading of it. Their feedback was invaluable, as was the process of hearing it in their mouths.
It’s a difficult ask to separate the crime committed by someone jailed for life – clearly for a very serious offence – and consideration of their personal wellbeing. Does the play address this conflict?
That very question and debate creeps into the play to become one of the central questions that is is exploring. It was an uncomfortable question I had to ask myself when faced with men who’d committed horrible crimes when I went in to prisons; it’s a question I still don’t have the answer to, which is perhaps why I was able to write a play about it. It seeks to find answers about how we can treat people with dignity at the end of their life even they’ve done terrible things. Can we? How? Should we? It’s really for the audience to find that answer.
How do you feel that Lifers speaks about our wider society, outside of the penal system?
Prison’s treatment of the elderly is in many ways just a microcosm of what happens outside to old people; forgotten and unseen. How do we as a society take responsibility for the most vulnerable?
Can you tell us about the cast and creatives involved in the show? It’s exciting to see Peter Wright coming to the stage!
He’s brilliant, isn’t he! He’s a heavyweight on screen, and even better on stage. It’s been a joy to see three older actors on stage – he’s joined by Sam Cox and Ricky Fearon. Allowing the voices of older people to take up space in our theatres has been a joy. (It does mean, though, that the rehearsal room is rambunctious! These are not docile old guys!)
James Backway and Mona Goodwin play the younger characters in the show which counterbalance the older men as the people responsible for their care which creates a really exciting dynamic with these actors. Esther Baker, the artistic director of Synergy, is directing. She’s directed two plays of mine previously and a short film, so we have a shorthand with each other having worked together across 15 years. Esther is not only an astute director, but has worked in prisons for decades so the play is in no safer hands. On our supporting creative team we also have talent who have experienced prison, so there’s a wealth of knowledge working on the show.
Synergy are renowned for their thoughtful, wraparound creative process. Can you tell us about the discussions that are taking place alongside the show, and where it will subsequently be performed?
There are some panels with experts on criminal justice, as well as Q&As with the cast and creative team to explore the themes of the show. There are also plans to bring the play back into the prisons we did the research in.
Thanks very much to Evan for telling us all about this fascinating show. Lifers plays at Southwark Playhouse, Borough from Wednesday 1 to Saturday 25 October.
