Lucy Kirkwood wrote new play Maryland after Sabina Nessa and Sarah Everard murders

Skins writer Lucy Kirkwood penned ‘provocative’ new play Maryland about male sexual violence in just two days after Sabina Nessa’s murder and sentencing of Wayne Couzens – and it’s already on stage in the West End

  • Award-winning writer’s latest work, Maryland, is based on male sexual violence 
  • Kirkwood, 37, says she felt compelled to write a play that had been in her ‘head for years’ after murder of Sabina Nessa on September 17 – and did so in two days
  • She sent it to London’s Royal Court theatre and the play is already on stage 
  • Told the Guardian newspaper plot had been ‘informed by something real – my experience or someone I know or something on the news.’


The screenwriter who wrote Skins has revealed how she was compelled to pen a new play about sexual violence against women following the ‘horrific’ murders of Sabina Nessa and Sarah Everard. 

Lucy Kirkwood wrote Maryland in just two days and describes the 30-minute theatre piece, which is already being performed at London’s Royal Court Theatre, as a ‘howl’ and ‘a way of expressing what I feel about a culture of violence against women.’

Speaking to the Guardian, Kirkwood said she hadn’t been commissioned to write Maryland but after doing so had sent it to the theatre who agreed to stage it. 

 

The award-winning writer’s latest work, Maryland, is based on male sexual violence; Lucy Kirkwood, pictured in 2013, says the play ‘had to happen now’, telling the Guardian she wrote it in just two days

The murder of Sabina Nessa, a primary school teacher who was killed in Cator Park, south-east London, as she made her way to meet a friend on September 17 'galvanised' Kirkwood to write Maryland

The murder of Sabina Nessa, a primary school teacher who was killed in Cator Park, south-east London, as she made her way to meet a friend on September 17 ‘galvanised’ Kirkwood to write Maryland

The short play - just 30 minutes long - is 'unfortunately, rooted in real life' says Kirkwood

The short play – just 30 minutes long – is ‘unfortunately, rooted in real life’ says Kirkwood

The award-winning playwright, 37, said the murder of Sabina Nessa, a primary school teacher who was killed in Cator Park, south-east London, as she made her way to meet a friend on September 17, had prompted her to write a play about male sexual violence that had been in her head for a decade. 

Nessa’s death took place just days before the sentencing of Wayne Couzens, who will spend the rest of his life in prison for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.   

She said: ‘It had been in my head for years as sketches and lines but Sabina Nessa’s death compounded everything and galvanised me – I felt like this had to happen now.’

Kirkwood said the short play was ‘unfortunately, rooted in real life’ and that its plot had been ‘informed by something real – my experience or someone I know or something on the news.’ 

Describing the work as a piece of ‘agitprop’ that’s designed to provoke, she added: ‘I want to put a stick in it and shake it and make that wasp nest more angry. The gesture of this is to ask why we are not angry.’ 

The murder of Sarah Everard, pictured, also influenced the playwright, who described the play as a 'howl'

The murder of Sarah Everard, pictured, also influenced the playwright, who described the play as a ‘howl’

Sabina Nessa's death took place just days before the sentencing of Wayne Couzens, pictured, who will spend the rest of his life in prison for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard

Sabina Nessa’s death took place just days before the sentencing of Wayne Couzens, pictured, who will spend the rest of his life in prison for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard

In a quote given to The Royal Court Theatre, Kirkwood said: ‘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. 

It was written very quickly, and I am grateful to the Royal Court for snatching up a gauntlet thrown down last Friday night with such energy, care and seriousness.’

Maryland runs at The Royal Court Theatre in London until October 16th 

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