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Lifers review – an inside look at the ageing prison population

Lifers review – an inside look at the ageing prison population

Southwark Playhouse Borough, London A young officer becomes the de facto carer of a vulnerable inmate in Evan Placey’s well-observed play about a stretched Prison Service A decade ago, playwright Evan Placey explored the labyrinthine pressures on young women in Girls Like That . While that scorching drama stress-tested a secondary school’s sisterhood, Lifers concerns a similarly precarious brotherhood of older men navigating the corridors of their own institution. Lenny (Peter Wight), Baxter (Ricky Fearon) and Norton (Sam Cox) are long-term prisoners who we first meet playing cards. As their game progresses, it becomes clear that beneath the repartee each has their own strategy for survival and Lenny’s failing memory leaves him vulnerable to the other two. They form an intriguing trio, and are convincingly performed, although the play could dig deeper into Baxter and Norton’s contradictory behaviour to their friend as Lenny is exploited and ultimately betrayed. More compelling is the relationship between Lenny and a young prison officer, Mark (James Backway), who adopts the role of his carer. That’s not in his job description, warns his colleague Sonya (Mona Goodwin), who draws a distinction between “duty of care” and “duty to care”. Prisons are there to protect the public but how, the play asks, can their inmates and staff be better protected? Continue reading...