A SERIES of dramas which sees Brookside powerhouses Phil Redmond and Jimmy McGovern working together for the first time since their days on the Liverpool soap has had its premiere.
The pair are helping to develop a series of local dramas aiming to tackle social issues of concern to “real people in real environments”.
Their work will help the successful community programme of Capital of Culture year continue into 2009.
The first of the plays premiered last Friday and is a new hard- hitting drama, Da Boyz. It will tour community venues before eventually being performed at Altcourse Prison.
Written by another ex-Brookside writer, Carol Cullington, the play examines the code of silence that can surround criminal events and takes place after two teen shootings turn a community upside down – leaving a mother in a dilemma when she finds out her son has been involved.
After the performance, the audience is invited to join in a discussion.
Although the play echoes real life events such as the murders of Rhys Jones and Croxteth gang member Liam “Smigger” Smith, Carole Cullington, who has written for McGovern’s The Street, Eastenders and Emmerdale, said that was not the reason she felt compelled to tackle the issue.
“The play is not inspired by any one event, or guns, or knives, but the after-effects that crime can have on a community and the wall of silence that is created after the event,” she said.
“ I’m trying to explore why that occurs, and that fear in communities, and the different reasons people do these things.
“Hopefully by the end of the play, people will want to open up and we can hear what people have to say.
“I want to get into communities and talk to people, so I want it to be as intimate as possible.”
Jimmy McGovern said he had been impressed by the strength of the play straight away.
“I came across this script a while back and it really is a powerful, moving piece, and written with massive integrity by someone who knows the score. I was knocked out by it.”
Director Ruth Ben-Tovim said it was her aim to bring a professional, multimedia production to the communities of the city, beginning at Kensington Fields last Friday and moving on to the Novas centre this week.
She said: “The audience are right in the middle of the production and it will be like they are really inside the whole experience.
“I am keen that the communities get all the professional levels of any theatre.”
Da Boyz will be touring commu-nities that have been directly affected by gun crime, ending in Altcourse for a show for inmates.
The play has been commissioned by the Liverpool Culture Company and CitySafe, as part of gun crime prevention strategy DISARM, and creative community programme It's Not OK.
