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Mind the Gap
by
Abi Bown
• The brain defines our sense of identity
• What if we could treat Alzheimer's in the early stages?
• Is growing old a disease?
• What if we choose to selectively forget?
• What if we could treat addiction at its origin in the brain?
• What if we could predict through brain imaging?
Would we? Should we?
On May 6th 2004 a young girl is pushed under a train at an East London tube
station. The culprit, Dino, an 18 yr old male with a history of substance abuse
is convicted of her murder and is due to be sentenced.
The girl’s boyfriend, Vijay, standing next to her at the time of the
murder is undergoing counselling for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. 6 months
on and Vijay leaves the security and comfort of his family home to go on a
relatively short journey across London to the Law Courts where Dino is about
to be sentenced.
For Vijay it is the ultimate test of his ability to cope with the aftermath
of Tania’s death. If he can get to the court by public transport, alone,
under his own steam to see Dino ‘sent down’, then a spell will
be broken and, he concludes, the tortuous six months of constant flash backs,
panic attacks and blackouts will evaporate.
With Dino incarcerated Vijay reasons, he can become a whole person again, his
tortured psyche can be eased, he can forget what he was made to witness on
that fateful day.
Armed with his coping mechanisms garnered through months of therapy, Vijay
makes it onto the bus. At the entrance to the tube station, however, he has
a vision of his girlfriend’s killer, panic overrides him and he blacks
out.
When Vijay comes to, only seconds later, he is alarmed to find himself underground
on the station platform. Fearful that he is now indeed living his nightmare,
he searches for a way out but all exits are blocked. There appears to be some
sort of security alert, the next train is 58 minutes away - Vijay has to sit
right there in the heart of his panic and fear.
Luckily he has company - Maya an old woman who surfs the tubes travelling from
stop to stop and Silas, the kiosk owner on whose platform Maya invariably finds
herself. Silas and Maya take it upon themselves to come to Vijay’s aid,
slowly drawing out from him the story of his girlfriend’s death. What
they don’t know is that the party is soon to be gatecrashed by a 4th
mind, who has followed Vijay into the underground and is set to haunt him.
Dino, Tania’s killer is now on the platform and Vijay must confront him
and his own ambivalent feelings towards the boy who snuffed out his girlfriend’s
life. Maya’s story weaves in and out of Vijay’s own. She revisits
her past and contemplates her future whilst the present, like her memory can
elude her. She has a diagnosis of suspected Alzheimer’s Disease, the
terminal neurological decline is in it’s early stages but Maya has taken
to wandering away from her family to find solace in the tubes of the underground
system. She is insightful of her condition but is easily disorientated and
can no longer decipher what is past or present with any great confidence.
Did she or didn’t she keep the appointment she made with the son who
had travelled across the world to be reunited with her? Tragically, she can’t
remember, but as the story of Vijay’s pain is played out before her on
the platform, the others are able to help her piece her story together and
she gets an answer.
Silas, the great listener who counsels the sad and the bad, the lost and the
wasted plays ringmaster and Devil’s Advocate. In the ‘underground
time’ in which the character’s find themselves, until the trains
are running again and a ‘good service’ is restored, Silas organises
mind games and party tricks, ever expanding the themes of memory, forgetting
and remembering.
He embraces the challenge of keeping everyone talking and encourages Vijay
to take his story to its ultimate conclusion. Vijay is at last alone on a deserted
platform with Dino, the tube train is about to come in - what will he do?
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For
further information about this project, email our
Tour Producer David Jackson |
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 Playwright
Abi Bown |
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