That Ric Renton’s gripping new play has the tang of authenticity should not come as a surprise. The playwright spent his early adulthood behind bars, so he is on firm ground with a drama set in HMP Durham. He has witnessed first hand the fear, desperation and violence of a Category A wing and, having discovered the English dictionary during a spell in solitary, he now writes with authority about three inmates doing time under the eye of a benign warder.
Renton has an ear for their language (the published script comes with a glossary) but also a shrewd understanding of the men’s vulnerability and volatility. While the playwright is the happy ending of his own story, he writes with realism not romanticism. There is the occasional laugh but you could not accuse him of pandering to liberal sensibilities. This world is bleak.
