Maryland began as a rapid-response cri de coeur from the playwright Lucy Kirkwood after the murders of Bibaa Henry and her sister Nicole Smallman, Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa – as well as the ensuing revelations about endemic misogyny in the police. It was staged at the Royal Court in London in October 2021. Now, it has come to the small screen on BBC Two, slightly expanded from its original 20 minutes. Television moves more slowly than the theatre, but no production about violence against and the killing of women will be untimely. This adaptation comes shortly after the announcement that – partly as a result of the embedded vileness and viciousness revealed so starkly by the murders of the sisters and Everard – the Metropolitan police has been put into special measures.
The plot of Maryland is small, but strong enough to bear what Kirkwood hurls at it. Two women called Mary – “You’re gonna laugh!” says PC Moody (Daniel Mays) as he introduces them at the police station – have been attacked by the same man within a few hours of each other. The first (played by Hayley Squires, who starred in Adult Material, Kirkwood’s series about the pornography industry, created by an all-female team) is pugnacious, the second (Zawe Ashton) more cowed – but they hold themselves with the particular stillness that tells you they are shattered. Most women will recognise it. A quarter of us have held ourselves that way. The others have borne witness to a friend, a family member, a loved one, a colleague, a stranger or a client doing the same. Simple maths makes us all part of Maryland.
