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“What is striking is that Lavery’s play is both radical in form and progressive in content….and theatrically riveting……It increases our understanding, which is Lavery’s ultimate intention.”
Michael Billington, The Guardian
Rhona, a 10 year old girl, walks out of her parents’ house en route to her grandmother and never arrives. Her mother, Nancy, retreats into a state of frozen hope.
Over subsequent years three characters come to terms with this in very different ways; her mother, her killer and the criminal psychologist who studies the case. The play questions the appetite for retribution.
The structure of the play makes for compelling viewing as we move from monologue to dialogue.
Hailed by the Independent as one of the 40 greatest plays of all time, after a premiere at the Birmingham Rep in 1998, where it won Best Play, Frozen made its debut at the National Theatre in 2002, moving to Broadway and securing four Tony nominations.
It was most recently revived in the West End in 2018 with Suranne Jones.
This amateur production of “Frozen” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd.
Performance is 2 hours including a 20min interval
Age guidance 16+
This production contains mature and potentially distressing themes including child sex abuse, murder, suicide, and very strong language.
Viewer discretion is advised. The performance may not be suitable for younger audiences.
WARNING: Haze and Smoking used during this performance
Director's Notes
“Is there any cause in nature that makes these hard hearts”
King Lear, William Shakespeare
You may have seen in the news recently, that Ian Huntley, the murderer of 10 year old Holly Marie Wells and Jessica Aimee Chapman in 2002, had been violently attacked and murdered in prison. The nature of Huntley’s crimes are difficult for most of society to comprehend. What turns a child into an adult who abuses and murders children? For most of us, people who commit such atrocities are evil and deserve no compassion.
Bryony Lavery’s much researched Frozen broke new ground in psychological drama when it first debuted at the Birmingham Rep in 1998.
The subject matter is dark, exploring the impact of a ten year old child’s murder on her mother, Nancy, the killer himself, Ralph, and Agnetha, the psychologist who is gathering case study research material on Ralph. Nancy’s experience is drawn from an actual testimony by the family of one of Fred and Rosemary West’s victims. Ralph’s character is constructed on study material on the Scottish serial child murderer Robert Black, and Agnetha is based on Dorothy Lewis, an American psychiatrist who has interviewed, and testified, in the cases of many death row inmates including Ted Bundy.
At its core, Frozen examines how trauma immobilises us, leaving us “frozen” in grief, guilt, or remorse. Each character embarks on a journey of emotional “thawing” as they confront their pain and attempt to heal. Nancy is frozen in hope and grief. Ralph is frozen in his warped sense of morality. Agnetha is frozen in her own loss of her close professional colleague, his studies being the reason why Agnetha’s path crosses with that of Ralph and Nancy.
Aside from the beautiful way in which the text is written in this play, such as its conciseness, style and structure, there is a definite message about how resilient human nature is in the face of horrors, that vindictive hatred leads nowhere and that we need to comprehend what leads people to such extreme acts.
I hope the audience will come away from this play with a sense of their own emotional resilience and power of agency to heal through forgiveness. Is this not a fitting sentiment to the Easter period?
DAVE CROSSFIELD: DIRECTOR, FROZEN
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