Theatre N16 presents:
April 18th – May 5th 2016, Theatre N16
1974, Guildford. Pub bombs in Guildford and Woolwich murdered seven people and shocked the nation – but why were the wrong men arrested? Forget Making a Murderer – this new play by journalist and playwright Martin McNamara uncovers the holes in our own judicial system through the story of Paul Hill and the Guildford Four, directed by Jamie Eastlake.
“McNamara’s dialogue is well–observed, sparklingly comic” (British Theatre Guide on Martin McNamara’s The Magic Hour)
After the Guildford and Woolwich bombings, Paul Hill and the Guildford Four were arrested and jailed for 15 years for crimes they did not commit, their convictions based solely on confessions extracted during brutal interrogation. Forensic evidence and witnesses that pointed to their innocence were never disclosed at the original trial. Detectives used violence, intimidation and threats to extract the confessions. It would take 15 long years of campaigning before the Four were exonerated and their convictions quashed.
Inside, Paul was beaten and brutalised; he was ‘ghosted’ (moved from prison to prison without notice) more than 50 times and spent a total of five years in solitary confinement. But he never gave up hope. Using the letters Paul sent to his mother and family over the course of his imprisonment, Your Ever Loving charts his fight to maintain his dignity and prove his innocence, as well as uncovering one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history.
Paul Hill says, “It appears nothing has been gleaned from miscarriages of justice, especially those with political overtones. We live in an age where you can be subject to torture, while Ivy League educated politicians play verbal gymnastics with the meaning of the word.”
“Jamie Eastlake is going to break the big time and do the North East proud” (The Newcastle Chronicle)
The play is written by Martin McNamara (2014 Royal Court Writers Group), a London writer and freelance journalist and radio producer, directed by Theatre N16 artistic director Jamie Eastlake, and stars Stefan McCusker as Paul Hill and James Elmes as The Rest of the World.