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BBC Radio 3, 25 October 2009
Recorded in front of a live audience at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary
Arts, Gateshead, as part of Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival, Beware the Kick told a stark tale of a twenty-first
century working class family living somewhere in the north-east. Jaden (Rosie Stancliffe), an unmarried mother of three, shacks up
with her latest boyfriend Mark (Matthew McNulty), a fitness fanatic and proud possessor of a pit-bull terrier but with no
aptitude as a father-figure. The children are allowed to run wild - which leads to predictable consequences. Audrey (Judy
Earl) calls in the social workers, led by Ben (Tony Nelson). Jaden's mother Yvonne (Jane Holman) takes charge of Jaden's baby
Nathan in the vain hope that she can offer some security. However the police and the social services force her to restore
the baby to its mother. Meanwhile Jaden gorges herself on a cocktail of drink and drugs, while protesting all the while
that her main concern is for her children's welfare. Nathan eventually dies as a result of a horrific accident
as Jaden's eldest boy Kyle (Mark Watson) shuts the baby in the cupboard as a 'punishment' for misbehaving. Kyle simply follows
Mark's example.
Based on extensive collaboration with local people, Laws' and Evans' play showed
how most people cannot enjoy the free thinking asssociated with Radio 3's festival, but rather struggle from day to day simply
to survive. Even the most well-meaning social workers cannot alleviate their problems. Neither Jaden nor Mark can be blamed
for their shortcomings; they are simply products of a no-hope culture in which distinctions between right and wrong no longer
hold sway. The director of this production was Kate Rowland.
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