There is a heart breaking scene towards the end of the play when Diamond remembers having to imagine what it would have been like to be held by his mother and how the other children at school were cared for, with good clothes and had mothers.  Pearl explains that it was what people did in the past, to leave their children, and that she didn’t realise how far away he would be, but the damage has been done.

Some of the dialogue is patois and quite difficult to hear and understand the full meaning but the text is for sale and reading it enriches the experience of seeing the play.  The result is that this multi-themed play is difficult to encompass entirely on first viewing but for me, it is a fascinating study of believable people; flirtatious Ruby, Pearl getting older with aching feet but with a good business brain and motherless Diamond, out of his depth with people who are real criminals.  I really look forward to seeing more of Martina Laird’s writing.