We sat down for a chat with Evan Placey, the playwright for a new show called Lifers. Lifers is a powerful and deeply human look at ageing behind bars and the stories we tell to survive. Darkly funny and unflinchingly honest, Lifers challenges what we think we know about crime, punishment, and redemption
What first drew you to explore the experiences of older prisoners, a group rarely represented on stage or in public discourse?
The first play I did with Synergy (15 years ago) was about a girl born in prison. So I started thinking about the other end of the spectrum – what it would mean to grow old and know you were going to die in prison. I experienced the same frustrations with the healthcare system many people do when my own dad was dying (even though he was in another country, and not in prison). It raised lots of questions for me about how we treat old people in society, and there were interesting dramatic questions in there I wanted to explore.
Lifers grapples with the humanity of people who have committed terrible crimes — how did you navigate that moral complexity in your writing?
I brought it right to the fore and created a dramatic question around it. Can you ever separate the man from the crime? Mark, the prisoner officer in the play, makes the decision not to read any of the prisoners’ files – he doesn’t want to have preconceived notions of who they are but what their crime is. But this moral position becomes challenged within himself when he does find out what one of them has done. I also forced myself to go on the same emotional journey of introspection. There were prisoners I met whose crimes made me deeply uncomfortable and I had to wrestle with my feelings towards them.
Having previously written for teenage audiences with Synergy, what shifted for you creatively when writing about ageing and incarceration?
Initially it was difficult to find the levity and to find the hope, something which is important for me in all of my work, whatever the topic or world. But writing truthfully about the challenges old people face in prison felt quite harrowing and depressing to me when I started. I had to creatively lean into the characters – the things about them and their relationships that were joyous, that were funny, that were meaningful, to get myself artistically excited.
How do you hope audiences will reconcile the humour and camaraderie in the play with the darker realities it presents?
Even in the darkest of places, we find moments of humour. But also, I hope audiences will experience what the men do – that it’s the camaraderie and humour that is the survival mechanism for these men. It’s in their finding humanity, love, and friendship in one another that they’re able to live through the darker moments life in prison presents.
What do you think theatre can uniquely contribute to conversations about justice, ageing, and dignity that policy or media often cannot?
It makes us feel things – it’s visceral and emotional and it therefore makes these conversations personal – they no longer become just about ideas but about real people.
Evan Placey’s play Lifers opens for Synergy Theatre Project at Southwark Playhouse on 1st October and runs until 25th October. Booking https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/lifers/#book-tickets