Also from the Guardian's top TV of 2022 list was "Maryland" a short, filmed play, for the want of a better description, written by Lucy Kirkwood, who wrote "Adult Material" a miniseries I watched and really liked a couple of years ago, again as it was on a Guardian's best of the year list.
Two women, both victims of sexual assault, are brought to a station to take part in a Police lineup. Both women are named Mary (Zawe Ashton and Hayley Squires) which is a source of amusement to the nervous and uneasy Police Officer Moody (Daniel Mays) who has been to fetch them. They're told not to discuss the cases with each other, but the ridiculous nature of the line-up forces them to open up. A Greek chorus of 'furies' talk about the dangers and experiences of women and debate why the violence perpetrated against them continues to go unchecked.
Performances in this are really good. Hayley Squires, who was in "Adult Material" is great as the understandably outraged Mary, with whom we experience the farcical lineup, the dignity free photograph session and hear her "plans" for the rest of the day. Zawe Ashton is the quieter of the two but it's still a powerful performance. It's testament to Daniel Mays that I never really thought that the story was going to go the way it does.
As a (large) man, I can't begin to comprehend what it's like to live with the kind of constant, low level apprehension that women are dealing with. But, even for only a brief time, I got some sense of what it must be like, watching this. It's a devastating scream of rage at the situation, made all the more distressing by the fact that it's probably not going to change anything. Some poor woman will be murdered the night I type this and another on the night you read it.
I'm stealing from the Guardian's review here, but it probably should be shown in schools to try and get everyone to consider it earlier in life, if we're ever going to change it.
