Cardboard
coffins and cake
ONE chap sits in a cardboard coffin painted
with stars and clouds, others crowd around
the cast of Colder than Here asking if there
are such places as woodland burial grounds
while eating cake and sipping tea.
It is rather surreal.
Sturminster Newton Amateur Dramatic
Society’s spin-off company Taboo has just
finished performing young playwright Laura
Wade’s play about death and dying to
prisoners at Guys Marsh Prison- it is also a
cast member’s birthday (hence the cake).
Producer Judith Pidgeon of The Martinsey
Isle Trust explains that there are many natural
burial grounds in the country that are a far cry
from the often morbid, clinical funerals
associated with crematoriums.
Conversation turns to personal experiences.
One inmate speaks of his loss. His partner,
just 24, died of cancer. Everyone nods in
agreement at the tragedy of a short life.
Another man has already spoken out about
the recent death of his mother from this
terrible disease.
This openness and discussion is exactly what
The Martinsey Isle Trust (co-founded by
Judith Pidgeon and David Wasley), prison
staff and the performers were hoping for
when they decided to stage the production
within the prison walls. “One in three people
know someone who has suffered from
cancer,” says Linda Cowley, who plays Myra
Bradley, the one dying of bone cancer.
A SNADS regular, who usually appears on
stage in pantomime or comedy, Linda gives
an exceptional performance as a woman
whose life is ebbing away. By the close of the
play tears had formed in Linda’s eyes, not for
her challenging subject, it seemed, but
because the 50-strong audience in the prison
chapel had responded with such powerful
applause they had appreciated it. The play is
about a family coping with cancer. Mother
Myra may be the one suffering the illness but
her husband and two daughters are affected
by the sickness in their own ways. Death
becomes something that can be talked about after all when there is a flat-pack cardboard
coffin that needs assembling in the living
room there is no avoiding the subject.
It was Linda who had thought to bring the
first amateur production of Colder than Here
to the prison, which would also be the first
time a local amateur company had visited.
She knows the prison well, once on the Board
of Visitors before it became the Independent
Monitoring Board, and now a trustee for the
Friends of Guys Marsh Prison.
“The trust was set up to raise money to put a
bit of change in the inmates’ calendar,” she
explains. “We help the prison service with
things they can’t afford.
“I thought the play would be ideal, because
apart from the death it is about family, a
dysfunctional family that finds it hard to
communicate. This is very relevant in a
prisoner’s life, how they can’t communicate
with their families.”
Head of activities at the prison, Liz
Kannangara said staff had been particularly
keen to get inmates who were fathers to see
the production because of how it addressed
family issues. Prison governor Susie
Richardson said: “It is difficult to measure
just how much this affected individuals, but it
has brought the subject into the open and has
got them talking about it.” Director Craig
White adds:
“I hope it’s given them something to go away
with, to think about. It is a thought-provoking
play about relationships and death, but also
about how people can change.
“All the characters change in the play. It
could give some stimulus to the inmates. We
are all part of this local community and the
prison is part of it too.” It was Taboo’s fifth
performance of Colder than Here for The
Martinsey Isle Trust, which debuted at Child
Okeford and has been performed at
Springhead, Fontmell Magna. There are
chances to catch it at Glastonbury in May as
the next part of its planned countrywide tour,
and it is hoped Taboo will confront other
difficult subjects in forthcoming projects.
Report and picture: Rosanna Holmes
“The British funeral isn’t what it used to be - today it includes anything from pop music to wicker caskets…religion is often relegated in favour of
elevating (and celebrating) the life of the individual, with new ritual filling, perhaps, a vacuum in our secular society. The trend… is for funerals
not to be seen as a rite of passage but as just another life style (or death style) choice’ ~ The British Way of Death BBC
Would anyone who has seen the play Colder Than Here and is willing to share any personal views or experiences relating to the above, please
contact Judith: 01258 475125 Ivy Cottage. Bath Road, Sturminster Newton, Dorset DT1O 1DU. Hopefully these observations will be added to her
proposed Master’s degree dissertation on ‘Death and Immortality’. Any information will be treated with the utmost sensitivity and confidentiality.
Also, anyone who has any personal experience of a traditional or alternative funeral which appears either to prove or disprove the above, please
contact Judith.
A slightly edited version of article dated Friday 16 th March 2007 of the Blackmore Vale Magazine