Kefi Chadwick: I wanted to get to the emotional and political heart of the deception

How do you write a play based on real life events when all those involved are anonymous?

When I first read about the undercover officers who’d duped women into having long term relationships with them, I felt this was a story I wanted to tell and I wanted to tell it on the stage. Theatre has the ability to be an incredibly responsive medium – plays like Richard Bean‘s Great Britain or Zodwa Nyoni’s Nine Lives are both plays that were extremely fast responses to key events that were riding high in the news. Theatre is also a great medium for issue led material. Whilst I wanted to write a play that really got into the emotional heart of what it is to be deceived on such a scale, I also wanted to explore the political context in which those events took places. Theatre seemed ideal for that.

But I didn’t want to tell the story without at least some of the women being involved. From the outset, I decided if the women did not want me to write the play, then I wouldn’t. After all, these are not X Factor contestants who want to be famous. These are women who have had the most terrible thing happen to them and who may not wish to share their story with anyone outside of their legal teams. So, no women, no play. It was as simple as that. But I would at least try.

At first it was brick wall after brick wall but then I got a lucky break through the group of eight women’s legal team. I wrote a letter detailing why I wanted to tell the story, what sort of story I wanted to tell – I wanted to write a fictionalised version of the events to give them anonymity and also to give me scope to explore all the aspects of the story in one piece – and also a bit about my personal history. I have some insight into what it’s like to discover the person closest to you has a whole secret life that you know nothing about. Not a State sponsored one and nothing on the scale that these women have suffered but enough to be able to relate to those feelings of betrayal and broken trust. Three of the eight were interested in the play and two went on to become closely involved over three years of researching and writing. I also had the contributions of other activists who were hugely generous in sharing their experiences.

The other coincidence that had happened along the way was that I had been put in touch with Giles Croft at Nottingham Playhouse. Several officers had been deployed in the Nottingham area, including the longest serving who had long term relationships including one that lasted six years. Giles and I met and discussed the story and once I had the agreement of some women – and no objections from others – he commissioned me. ‘I like your outline. We’re going to commission this.’ That was it. And from there I had the support of Giles and Nottingham and the play came into life.

This has been a story of lucky breaks, of being clear about what I wanted to do and acting on it and also about stamina. It’s also been a story about writing about what obsesses you because that is the only drama worth telling. I haven’t always got it right. When you’re dealing with people’s lives there may be times when you include things that they have told you but actually don’t want in the public domain. But the women have been very generous with their time in reading drafts and making comments and I cut and rewrote whatever was necessary to ensure that we had the emotional heart of the story whilst not compromising anyone’s anonymity or personal feelings.

I am very proud of what I’ve written and I’m most proud that those women who were involved feel I’ve represented them and told their story properly. That is the best feeling of all.

— Kefi Chadwick

Any Means Necessary runs at the Nottingham Playhouse from 5-20 February.