Iron

Synopsis

Josie is visiting her mother Fay for the first time in 15 years. She's never walked into a prison before. Fay is serving life for murder. Iron is an intense psychological drama in which a mother and daughter try to break through the barriers of time, memory and punishment which separate them. But between them lies the fact of murder. A murder Josie cannot remember and Fay has always tried to forget. Uncovering the memories they share is more dangerous than either of them can imagine.

Our Review:

28 January 2003

Josie hasn't seen her mother in 15 years, not since Fay murdered her father in a rage. Now a grown woman, Josie has come to pay Fay an unexpected visit in a Scottish prison, where she remains locked up for life.

Josie has no memories of her parents or, in fact, anything before the age of 11 when, one morning, she woke to discover her father's bloodied corpse. Fay has nothing but memories. Over a series of visits - at first tentative, later moving and explosive - the two women get to know and love one another. Both troubled, they attempt to live vicariously through the other: Fay wanting a present in which she, through her reserved daughter, is able to experience anew romance, spicy food and nights out; Josie craving a past and a childhood brought into sharp, fully explained, focus.

Rona Munro's script, under the direction of Roxana Silbert, develops this unusual mother-daughter relationship beautifully, while weaving in additional strands of both the personal and the p...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (80.193.222.20) - 31 January 2003:

Saw this on Wednesday night. What an interesting play, it makes you think throughout. The first act can stray at times and you wonder if some cuts could have been done, but the second act is excellent. I thought that the last scene was not needed (but good), and the play would have had more impact if the ends had not all been neatly tied up. After the play the write Rosa Munroe (I think) and actors came on for an after show talk. It was very interesting and we advanced some of the theams that I have outlined above as well as character motivations and background ect. I love these kind of events and wish the more 'commercial' west end theatres would do this kind of thing, well done Royal Court I say (I look forward to the next one...

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