by Philip Ralph
Back in 1995, a young army recruit, Sean Benton, was shot 5 times in the
chest at Deepcut barracks in Surrey. Suicide was presumed by the army
authorities and confirmed by Surrey police after a perfunctory investigation. 19
weeks later Cheryl James was found dead at Deepcut. Again, suicide was assumed
and confirmed without any real thought. It was another 6 years before Geoff Gray
was found dead at Deepcut with two bullets to the head and a few months later
James Collinson was also found dead, from a single bullet fired upwards his chin. In each case the verdict assumed was
suicide, there was no proper police investigation, and crucial evidence has been
lost or not vcollected (Sean Benton's shirt has been lost, similarly the
bullet which killed Cheryl and so on.) After a BBC documentary the case became a
national cause celebre and the Government appointed a judge, Nicholas
Blake QC to 'review' the incidents. After 15 months behind closed doors his review, a
2400 pages of it, found that 'on the balance of probabilities', there was no
reason to change the assumptions of suicide.
Tricycle specialise in putting dusty reports and verbatim accounts onto the stage. They produced Guantanimo, extracts from letters and accounts of lawyers who visited the camp, and I also saw their dramatisation of the Saville Enquiry into Bloody Sunday. There has, however been no public enquiry into Deepcut, so writer Philip Ralph conducted his own. This account is based on the Blake document, the testimony of Cheryl James' parents, Cheryl's friend Jonesy, journalist Brian Cathcart and forensic firearms expert Frank Swann.
To get the easy part over with first. The play is superbly written and
directed. It tells the story effectively yet although it is all about words,
the staging is inventive and pulls you into the action. The main device is paper
and boxes of paper. One of the strands of the play is the way in which
bureaucracy has been used to prevent questions being asked, and this is
physically present on stage on many occasions. Apart form a slightly dodgy accent
from Rhian Blythe, the acting is restrained and emotional. The lynchpin is Des
James, Cheryl's father. Ciaran McIntyre plays him as a very straight man, who is
subject to so much frustration that when his rage does explode it is a piece of
raw emotion, the tragedy of the entire story summed up in his 20 seconds of
primal scream. Rhian Morgan, as Cheryl's mother, unravels gently as the play proceeds, falling
inevitably apart from the stress. The parents, by the end, are unemotionally
locked into a process from which there appears to be no escape. Simon Molloy
plays Nicholas Blake as the pillar of the establishment, apparently unable to
see why his report doesn't answer the families concerns. Perhaps most intriguing
is Robert Blythe's portrayal of the forensics expert, Frank Swann. Despite
essential evidence having been not kept, or indeed collected, he is convinced
that none of these events was a suicide. The multiple wounds self inflicted by
the automated weapons used may seem obviously questionable (does Blake ever
explain how you can shoot yourself in the forehead twice??) but Swann
suggests that the Cheryl would have been unable to pull the trigger of the gun
from the position in which she was found, and that in James' case, analysis of
blood suggests the presence of another person at the time of the shooting.
However Swann refused to give evidence to Nicholas Blake, saying he would only
testify to an open, public enquiry. Whether or not you think Blake's final
report justifies this stand is up to you.
What is clear in this play is the disgusting way families of the dead soldiers were treated, the cavalier disregard of both army and police to the basics of criminal investigation and how effectively a government can use bureaucratic processes to stifle, frustrate (and enrage) opposition. It is a shocking tale, but brilliantly told. This current run at the Tricycle is sold out, but I am sure it will move on and if so I will post details here.
In the meantime, do follow the link and learn more about this shocking story.
http://www.deepcutfamiliesfightforjustice.co.uk/
Return
to reviews