BBC Radio 4, 19 February 2014
A mysterious tale of murder and
witchcraft based around two myths: the notion of hair as a symbol of power and identity, and the idea borrowed from the Aeneid
that weaving connotes a prolongation of life.
Lorna (Amybeth McNulty) is a thirteen-year-old girl considered at risk by Social Services,
due to her continued association with down-and-out Mervyn (Des McAteer). She encounters Sarah (Branka Katic), a Latvian
émigré who purports to be a hairdresser, but who is regarded as a witch by the other Latvian girls in the town. No one
really knows where she came from or what she represents, but she ends up befriending Lorna and taking her away.
Eventually we learn Sarah's
true identity and why she has come to the Northern Irish town Lorna inhabits; but by then Lorna has absconded with Sarah,
leaving Lorna's mother looking fruitlessly for her whereabouts.
Heather Larmour's production offered an intriguing study of Lorna's fantasy-world, the product
of loneliness and alienation in a society more concerned about her so-called "welfare" than her feelings. In the end
we felt her decision to leave with Sarah was somehow right, even though no one - not least the listeners - knew what her eventual
fate might be.
