Читать книгу Too Much Punch for Judy - Mark Wheeller - Страница 6

Introduction to the 2020 edition

No one is more surprised than me at the enormous success achieved (so quickly) by Too Much Punch for Judy, which I wrote initially as a twenty-minute end section to a Youth Theatre play, Quenchers, about alcohol abuse. Since those initial performances in 1987 until 2018, Too Much Punch for Judy has toured non-stop throughout schools, colleges, prisons, young offenders institutes and army bases. It has also been performed extensively in Australia, Cyprus, N. Ireland, Éire, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, the USA (Texas), Spain, Canada, Singapore, South Africa, Hong Kong, Dubai and Vietnam.

In 1991, I was awarded the Prince Michael of Kent Special Award for Services to Road Safety Education for the play. Too Much Punch for Judy is now one of the most (if not the most) performed contemporary plays, with 6058 licensed performances between 1987 and 2020… all this from a twenty-minute “extra” at the end of a production about alcohol misuse.

By the Christmas of 1985 the outline structure of our Youth Theatre play dealing with the dangers of alcohol was, we thought, complete. Then I saw the emotive (and very effective) Christmas drink/drive campaign. The subject of drinking and driving had not even crossed my mind… times were very different then. Drink/driving was something that everyone knew happened but few really thought seriously about it. Here was a real challenge for the play; to flag up a really important issue and encourage an awareness of what was evidently a massive problem.

Shortly after, I spoke to our Schools Police Liaison Officer who put me in contact with PC Chris Caten who, in turn, introduced me to “Judy”.

JUDY: Chris Caten explained that there was a local playwright looking for a story about drinking and driving. He wasn’t at all sure that I’d want to do it but, as he knew me quite well thought it was worth sounding me out.

I thought… well… alright then, if someone’s that interested I will… especially as Chris thought it was such a good idea. I didn’t view the details of the accident as private, I’d dropped a bollock and, well, it didn’t matter to me how many people knew, so long as it was going to do some good somewhere along the line.

The local paper, the West Essex Gazette (who were always so supportive of the play), had been particularly sensitive in their coverage at the time of the accident, writing no more than a brief report. Consequently, the incident had not been “big” local news so, few people actually knew Judy’s story. There were even details of it, the research for this play uncovered, that Judy herself didn’t know… she was, for example, completely unaware that anyone arrived on the scene prior to Chris Caten.

I met Judy on the 3rd January 1986. She was a wonderful subject to interview; she was incredibly open, making it easy for me to ask probing questions and, in describing events, quite naturally quoted lines of dialogue. I admired (and still do) her courage in coming forward. I left her house that day with the play planned out clearly in my head. It fell into place very naturally from that point on.

JUDY: The main thing I remember about that first interview was getting upset at the point where I remembered I said ‘Oh no… not my beautiful sister’. I remember having to stop at that point thinking I was going to start crying and feeling really stupid.

From initial interviews I conducted with Judy, her mum, Chris Caten, PC Abrahams, “Duncan” and Sister Davis, I was able to jigsaw together the first draft of the play.

I set myself the challenge of only using words spoken in the interviews to ensure that the play “rang true”… as true as joint memories would allow. Consequently, the first draft was dense with monologues but it gave me a starting point to return to the relevant interviewees, to tease out more dialogue and check what had been selected for authenticity.

Finally Judy, Vi, Chris and myself had a meeting and went through each of the scenes where two or more of them appeared together. This was amazing. It ironed out any inconsistencies and also inspired new memories and therefore new words for the script.

JUDY: If you’re going to do an autobiographical play like this I think it’s best to use the person’s words to capture the way they speak, otherwise you can’t begin to understand what sort of person they are. This wasn’t a fairy tale to be messed around with… it’s something that actually happened and, anyway, I don’t think it would have had half the impact.

One rehearsal, just a week before the premiere of Quenchers, illustrates how close this method of writing had come to getting the script ‘right’.

We were having difficulty staging the section where Chris reveals to Judy that her sister had been killed. The words were fine but we couldn’t figure out how we should stage Chris. Should he be standing, kneeling beside her… how close should he be? I asked Chris to come in and add his comments. Chris watched but… his suggestions didn’t seem to work. Then I asked Chris to do the scene but of course he didn’t know the words.

“No problem!” I retorted, “Just improvise.”

Chris improvised and our Judy (Kim Baker) at that time, said the words from the script. Chris was able to show us how he broke the news and, with few exceptions he used the words we had in our script. For the record he knelt beside her and held her hand. I remember some time afterwards the police said they used this scene as an example of recommended police behaviour in this kind of situation.

Many who have seen the play say how powerful this approach was (it is now often referred to as Verbatim Theatre – this was written before that description was coined) and comment on the authenticity of the words. The success and effectiveness of Too Much Punch for Judy stems from the fact that it is true and “Judy” is real.

No attempt should be made in presenting the play to hide this fact, indeed by the use of slides of the real incident, the “reality” can be highlighted to the audience. This Brechtian approach was the one used by the Epping Youth Theatre when they presented the first version of the play as the end piece to Quenchers with the real Judy in the audience for the first time. It proved hugely successful.

JUDY: I breezed through getting ready. I breezed into Harlow Playhouse, got into the theatre and nearly lost control. I was flinching all the time and it made me sweat trying not to lose control. I didn’t know whether to cry and walk out or be sick and walk out. I remember there were some young blokes, they were about eighteen, across from us, and they were crying. I was surprised. I never thought it would genuinely upset people like that, I really didn’t.

Throughout the (long) run of Quenchers we picked up some tremendous reviews and also gained the interest and support of the Essex County Council Road Safety Department. A very fruitful relationship quickly developed and they sponsored our performances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Everyone thought this would be a fitting end to this hugely successful project. I had other ideas. It was only the beginning!

I could see that the final section of Quenchers (sub-titled Too Much Punch for Judy, after a little-known national Christmas drink/drive campaign) had enormous potential, as yet unrealised… but it had only told half the story. I began to realise that, rather than the night of the fatal accident appearing on its own, out of context, I should tell the story of Joanna and Judy from childhood. Fortunately, Judy was more than willing to co-operate, so I organised an interview which, like the others before, would be taped and painstakingly transcribed by hand.

Judy talked openly about her childhood years and her relationship with Jo giving me plenty of material to work with. I combined these interviews with what her mother had said in her original interview and jigsawed together a new opening section telling of Judy’s early years and made a number of developments to the accident section.

Too Much Punch for Judy received its first public performance on Thursday 12th February 1987 in front of about forty people in the small drama studio at St. Johns School, Epping.

JUDY: I thought that it was better than the extract in Quenchers. I thought it had more effect. It’s not something I can enjoy. I switch off emotionally, otherwise I’d cry. When you’re not ready for it, it does give you a bit of a wallop.

The reviews following this performance were universally excellent.

Soon, Essex County Council were telling me that they wanted to sponsor a tour of the play. They would pay for the play to be performed in every school in Essex. I couldn’t believe it! Unfortunately, it was unrealistic to release the Youth Theatre from their studies for eight weeks, so as second choice, a professional TIE company were hired (Touchstone Theatre In Education Company) and the tour, much to my surprise, happened. The next thing I knew was that someone from Scotland had seen the play and they wanted it to tour Scottish schools. Since then it has toured across Britain (Ape Theatre Company) every year up until 2014 when government cutbacks led to the road safety departments who funded it being disbanded.

The next invitation was for the play to tour throughout Éire…then New Zealand. I was even invited out (paid for by the British Council… thanks!) to see the play and lead some workshops. Amazing! It became the most performed play in New Zealand with John Godber’s Bouncers coming in second!

It was subsequently performed by the critically acclaimed TESTO in Norway and Michelle Smith’s (one of the founder members of Paper Birds) Love Theatre in Jersey.

Throughout this time, school/college drama departments began to put on their own productions of the play. The ones that I have seen have been outstanding. It has won numerous One Act Play Festival awards.

When I was an examiner for GCSE Drama I often read students’ glowing reviews of Ape’s performances. More recently I have been approached for permission to use extracts for A-Level or audition speeches and to that end, I have adapted a monologue which will, I hope, prove useful to such students. All this from the smallest of small plays! It seemed that nothing could go wrong. But it did.

Late in the evening, shortly after the 5th October 1993, I received a phone call from Chris Caten. His tone immediately told me that something dreadful had happened. Nothing could prepare me for what he was about to say; Judy had been involved in a second drink/drive incident. Her car had collided with another and killed the twenty-one-year-old driver (Penny Jessup) immediately.

This tragedy defied belief. The emotional consequences for all involved, were more far reaching than I could ever imagine. The awful events (included in this version of the play with a fuller context than in any previous version) speak for themselves. A road safety officer shocked me further by saying that, sadly, this incident supported statistics: Once you have been convicted of drinking and driving… you are more likely, statistically, to offend again than someone who has never done so! Do people never learn? That has led me to pose the question to frame this version of the play…

If Judy didn’t learn from being involved in the incident, can we honestly expect people in an audience watching this play to allow their behaviour to be affected?

Despite this, I remain convinced that it can be a potent message for many. But of course I would say that, I guess. It’s certainly an interesting debate.

I sincerely hope that in continuing to promote this play we can all do our best to raise the issues and ensure that there are fewer tragedies around the corner.

It is estimated that Too Much Punch for Judy has been seen by nearly a million young people over the last thirty or so years. The powerful tool of live theatre has been well served by the many versions of the play and the message of ‘safe driving practices’ communicated effectively and imaginatively by many theatre groups. How many lives have been saved? No one can answer that. Originally the aim of this play was to help put the problem of drinking and driving ‘on the agenda’. I am certain that it has gone way beyond that.

It has also, I hope, made drama lessons more enticing and exciting. I love visiting schools often delivering workshops on animating monologues and, of course, the accident scene. When I first heard this story I knew that had to be the centrepiece of the play. We had to stage it. Neither I nor my Youth Theatre members had any model on which to base how we should do it. There was no Frantic Assembly… no physical theatre groups that we were aware of. We didn’t let this put us off. To tell this story we had to stage this scene… and so we did, progressively well as time went on. The version you can see in the OYT 25th Anniversary production is to date (2020) the definitive presentation of this scene. I am very proud to say it was directed by my son Charlie, who wasn’t even born when the play was written. He is now a circus performer (Barely Methodical Troupe) and my instruction to him before I left him with my cast was ‘bring a bit of circus to it’. And he did! Thanks, Charlie.

I have also loved writing a resource book which has been published by Salamander Street alongside this script. This was designed by Barrie Sapsford who was in the very first production of this play when it was a twenty minute add-on to our Quenchers play. It was very much a labour of love developed on the request of teachers and students who wanted to know more about the play. This volume tells you everything you could ever want to know. It’s not that I have a great memory (I don’t) but I kept production diaries at the time, which with all this interest in the play have proved unexpectedly useful!

This is a genuinely ‘new’ publication. It includes all the updates I made in the previous one where I went through all the interviews and spotted parts that I missed first time round. I also made small alterations to the order of the ‘jig-saw’ and have consciously made a point of stressing certain moments that had been previously passed over. I also discovered for this edition an interview transcription I did with Judy after the second incident. There was some of this I’d not included previously but now I think the time is right to reveal it. I have also included some of the context for that second incident. I had always been fearful that to do so would be seen to be offering a justification of what happened. I don’t intend it to be that, and nor would Toni. It is merely the facts that led to the situation she found herself in. It is my decision to include these words in this publication. I hope it adds to our understanding of an appalling situation for anyone to be in.

I hope that the increased availability of this play script will lead to new performances in new territories and new audiences so that the openly propagandist message is spelt out to even more people… young and old alike.

Don’t drink and drive.