After the Accident

Synopsis

A child’s life is snuffed out by a joy-rider. Four years on, the parents and the young lad meet. This award-winning drama explores the process of Restorative Justice, by which victim and offender are brought face to face, in a common endeavour to repair the harm caused by crime. Combining powerful storytelling with a strongly expressive thread, the drama unpicks the web of emotional devastation wrought on parents and killer alike.

Our Review:

Andrew Girvan - 8 June 2011

An exploration of the "restorative justice system" Julian Armitstead's After the Accident asks if we can ever really truly forgive when lives are left paralysed by anger and grief can place a powerful strangle hold over a victim's everyday.

An apparently simple scenario - persistent young offender Leon (James Kozlowski) has killed Petra (Frances Ashman) and Jimmy's (Richard Stacey) young daughter after crashing the car he was joy riding. The couple meet their daughter's killer face to face four years on hoping for "a way forwards".

The couple can't forgive, their son's killer. He in turn cannot forgive his dead friend Freddie for throwing him the stollen car keys and telling him to drive. Still sickeningly obsessed by cars, the victims of Leon's crime want to see him live through the hell in which they find themselves, and Kozlowski brings a youthful incredulity to his portrayal.

Ashman's harrowing performance captures a mother ...

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Latest User Review

Dawn Smith - 26 May 2012:

I just heard this play on BBCi, if I lived in England, I'd certainly buy tickets now. I thought it very strong, well out of the ordinary. I think it gets full marks....

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