Maryland — Lucy Kirkwood’s mordant play adapted into an arresting short film

“What contemporary hell do you want earlier than you might be as offended as we’re?” calls for a refrain of girls in Maryland, a brand new quick movie that seeks to jolt society from its violent indifference in direction of the continued abuse and assaults suffered by girls by the hands of males.

Half battle cry, half anguished lament, the half-hour piece was written by the dramatist Lucy Kirkwood in two days final autumn as a response to the murders of Londoners Sabina Nessa and Sarah Everard. Initially staged on the Royal Court docket Theatre, the manufacturing was spontaneous and carried out script-in-hand — dramatic immersion sacrificed for directness.

Maryland has misplaced none of this urgency on this arresting BBC adaptation. The story it tells is one which unfolds every single day, as if inexorably, in atypical properties and unremarkable streets. It begins with Mary (Hayley Squires), strolling alone at nightfall — her keys poking via her closed fist — on the best way to purchase a can of soda. The picture cuts to black. The subsequent shot finds her packing up her garments in a bag and being picked up by a police officer. “Rape” is rarely as soon as talked about right here — the clean display screen (accompanied by a screeching, atonal noise) conveying extra of the all-enveloping horror than a phrase to which we might have change into numbed.

On the station, Mary sits subsequent to a different lady, a namesake (Zawe Ashton), who endured the same assault. “I do know you’re going to wish to chat about it,” the cop (Daniel Mays) says in a glib flip of phrase that reduces the life-altering ordeal to idle gossip. Each are then taken for additional questioning and to have their bruises photographed. That each one this takes place in a darkish interrogation room tacitly addresses how incessantly it’s urged that victims share culpability with their assailant.

“I suppose it was a bit silly [to go out] that point of night time,” one of many Marys says, heartbreakingly, to the opposite, as they start to share what occurred. Their dialog stumbles and trails off however the immense effort required to maintain from falling aside is articulated via the actors’ non-verbal eloquence. But Kirkwood doesn’t ease up on us by having the ladies discover consolation, solace or closure in speaking. As a substitute she doubles down with a devastating flip that confronts us with that terrible void once more.

Whereas Maryland harnesses the facility of implication to nice impact, it additionally is aware of how one can ship exhausting, blunt truths. The occasions of the “story” are witnessed by an extra-narrative group — a contemporary tackle each the Greek refrain and the mythological Furies — who interject with the on a regular basis experiences and concerns of girls, from being intimidated within the park to researching what to do if kidnapped, or fearing what the police may do to them (in the event that they don’t ignore them altogether).

These observations finally lead right into a crescendo of punchy, mordant parting ideas that tear on the conscience and linger within the thoughts. “How is it doable that we are able to get two billionaires to house safely however a lady can not stroll 5 minutes from her home with out being . . .?” The query is totally not a rhetorical one.

★★★★☆

From July 20 at 10.05pm on BBC2 and on iPlayer