An exploration into empathy and unresolved relationships.
After 12 years inside, Jude and Kane (Aliaano El- Ali and Levi Bent) run into each other on a debate course in a prison classroom. The teenage camaraderie that once bound them resurfaces as if no time has passed, but there’s an unspoken tension between them. What begins as a structured exercise in debating soon unravels into something more personal: a friendship now complicated by time served and everything left unsaid.
Second Speaker, a new play by Nathan Chu, gradually opens out into an examination of the prison education system and the value of learning in environments designed for containment rather than growth. It exposes issues that often affect convicted men, from funding decisions to racial bias within the justice system.
The debate course is led by Paige (Cici Clarke), a former lawyer with a kind yet firm approach. She struggles to keep an undersubscribed programme funded, standing up to authorities who prioritise physical training as a more profitable option for inmates’ reintegration into society.
Oliver Barry-Brook as Steve, the classroom assistant, is sharp, funny and defiant. He throws sucker-punch insights about the prison education system, offering both comic relief and uncomfortable truths.
Around them, the wider justice environment is completed by a wing mate, a police officer and a detective, all embodied by Marino Stavrou, giving each a distinct physicality and energy: self-indulgence, authority, or manipulation.
The cast is energetic and fun to watch, and their performances grow stronger as the story unravels the thread leading to the day that changed the lives of two teens getting a bite at Morley’s.
The simplicity of the design makes way for a clear focus on the story, and scene transitions keep a swift flow. At times this minimalism works, although it often feels more functional than atmospheric.
While each scene adds an extra bit of insight, some linger in the tangents a bit longer than needed. The stakes remain somewhat diffuse. We see people trying to move on or forget the past (which sounds like the same thing, but we realise how it isn’t). The show allows us to see them through their laughs, dreams, and aches. But the storyline remains flat for a bit too long before its striking end.
Second Speaker offers a close glimpse into the education system behind bars, its limits and possibilities. But ultimately, Second Speaker is an exploration into empathy. The show peels back the layers of each character to find the core of what each is bringing into that classroom. We are introduced to sharp characters, motivated and loyal. What’s dissected here is what these traits are put in service of, and why. The result is a reminder that a neat structure of propositions and rebuttals is, in reality, far more complex and messy.
The show ran on 30th-31st May at Theatre Peckham, London.