THEATRE REVIEW: Enough - The King's Arms Theatre, Salford.

“Enough” by Emily Hunter is a hard-hitting naturalistic drama about misogyny in the British police force. Presented by Moonstone Theatre, this performance was at the Kings Arms as part of the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival.

This new play was inspired by the events of the Sarah Everard case in 2021, and the Metropolitan Police’s totally inappropriate response to the public vigil held for her. Playwright Emily Hunter spoke to many female police officers about their own experiences of misogyny within the police, compounded with accompanying race-related issues, and this script is the result.

Riah Amelle was the central character Constable Irie Dayton. A fresh young recruit straight from training, Constable Dayton is an idealistic and mixed-race young woman who really wants to help people and make a difference in society. That is what the police are for, isn’t it? As gradually the cynicism, cronyism and subtle bullying of her colleagues bit into her, little pieces of her soul began to be scattered around the stage. Amelle was born to play sensitive ingenues, and the combination of her delicate sensitivity with a job that involves bolshy authoritarianism led to a performance of both truth and subtlety.

Gemma Green was Sergeant Toni Spence. It was very interesting to see a female performer sucking up every aspect of the world-weary and rather corrupt older cop that we know from television dramas. Green’s stage presence was electric; and though she had a quiet and underplayed performance style, her authority was never to be questioned and she was fully capable of committing bodily harm – if she felt like it. Not someone you’d want to be left alone in an interrogation room with.

Emily Hunter, as Constable Christine Dash, was caught in the middle. Constable Dash essentially wanted an easy life, never putting her hand up for promotion, avoiding messy cases of paperwork, and being a great one for ensuring everybody was in the same team and on the same page. Hunter hit just the right note of being laconically slobby one moment, and ready to break fingers the next. Again, this was fascinating to see in a female performer.

The setting was a non-descript police station somewhere in the North. An Everyman police station. A quick series of vignettes bounced the characters from one micro scenario to another, building up the characters and the prevailing atmosphere. It was a surprise to see this environment being perpetuated by three female police officers, and I did wonder if the point Hunter was making was if the women are this misogynistic – and they were - we don’t even need to see the men. (Actually, Hunter had a clever twist for us on this point, which I won’t give away!)

Director Kitty Ball kept up a taut, sparse production that held the audience’s focus until we were breathing in unison. She is very, very good at handling power dynamics; and the shifts went up and down the scale with a concert pianist’s precision.

I can think of all kinds of places I would like to see this production performed at, beginning with the major conferences of the various policing organisations of the United Kingdom. In the meantime, this is an importantly angry play, and needs to be seen. Everywhere.

Reviewer - THalia Terpsichore
on - 11.7.23