The Third Trial
by Hattie Naylor
Hattie Naylor - The Third Trial
BBC Radio 3: The Wire
Broadcast: Saturday 2nd June 2007 @ 9:00 p.m.
"The Third Trial" is Hattie Naylor's play about loss, guilt and responsibility.
Stephanie ("Sugar") and Steven ("Sweetmeat") Wilton are in the first stages of grief: their son, Matthew, and his wife, Mina, have died in
a holiday diving accident after Matthew's enforced departure from the Army with Post Traumatic Stress following a tour of duty in Iraq.
Sweetmeat and Sugar are overwhelmed and desperately seek a reason for his early death. They barely knew Mina and are unsure of
where she was from. It is clear that their relationship with Matthew – their only child – was distant and troubled. Sugar worries that they did
not love him enough and that they pushed him away.
In their need to find a scapegoat, suspicion turns on Mina. They begin to blame her for Matthew's death, finally deciding that she is from
the war zone where Matthew had been fighting and married him only for his passport. Mina becomes the "other", the figure of their hate,
the reason why Matthew died.
As the couple struggle with their loss, their house seems to be filling with water; cushions and clothes are damp, the tap drips, water
seems to be coming in under the door. Then, Sugar starts to "hear things" and a sense of being haunted begins to grow...
With Paula Wilcox [Stephanie ("Sugar") Wilton], Desmond McNamara [Steven ("Sweetmeat") Wilton], Jade Williams [Jeannie], Rachel
Bavidge [Mina], Jot Davies [Matthew (as an adult)], and Jordan Clarke [Matthew (as a child)].
Directed by Marc Beeby
50 min.
Jim
