Preview Dust
Another very local drama comes to the WYP
Preview: Dust
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We Loiners are widely acknowledged as being tough, not least by ourselves, but the late June Hancock was one of the hardiest. In 1993, she was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a particularly vicious form of lung cancer, and her doctor predicted that she would have around two years to live. The situation was rendered yet more distressing because it evoked memories of her mother’s death at the hands of the same condition. However, the following year she took on the slippery legal minions representing Turner and Newall, the corporate owner of the JW Roberts factory, in her hometown of Armley, west Leeds.
Hancock’s case was based on her conviction that T & N ought to take responsibility for exposing the surrounding community to asbestos over a prolonged period, the likely cause of her illness. The company’s negligent attitude is reflected especially chillingly in local people’s recollections that they threw “summer snowballs” at one another in the factory’s loading bay as children. Hancock won her case in 1996, having forced T & N to release sensitive documents supporting her position. She was awarded £65,000 in compensation, but died the next year. Moreover, despite her eventual victory, legal loopholes will probably prevent other victims from achieving the same result.
Maintaining its tradition of producing plays that are set in its orbit, the West Yorkshire Playhouse has commissioned a dramatisation of her story. Dust is the first full length piece by local playwright Kenneth F Yates, whose research encompassed trial transcripts, letters and interviews with people from the locality, including Hancock’s family. Given that April and May’s Northern Exposure double bill was its last major success in this respect, albeit one that partnered two short plays that were chirpier in tone than Dust and largely fictional in substance, it seems fitting that its director will share the command of this production. WYP literary associate director Alex Chisholm is to co-direct alongside Christopher Hill and Madeleine O’Reilly.
Indeed, there is much about the show and its background that seems appropriately considered and respectful. Its cast has been recruited locally; it is being produced in association with I Love West Leeds Festival; and its premiere will take place behind Pet and Garden World in Armley, near to where the factory stood, before it transfers to the WYP’s Courtyard Theatre. Most notably, however, all proceeds will go to The June Hancock Mesothelioma Research Fund. Established by Hancock’s family shortly after her death, this charity provides money for research, clinical trials and patient and carer led seminars and literature.
15-18 July, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Playhouse Square, Quarry Hill, LS2 7UP, 0113 213 7800, 7.45pm (Saturday matinee 2pm), £9
Posted on Monday 22nd June 2009
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