Murchison's Fragment

Murchison’s Fragment brings together nineteen plays – mostly for stage but with three for radio – that range from a deceptively frivolous, if macabre, 10-minute monologue to an uncompromising 45-minute study of imprisonment and torture based upon a real-life situation. In between are tales of ambition, greed and human frailty, here and there touching upon horror and the supernatural. Throughout, we encounter flawed individuals getting their comeuppance or – just as likely (and unjustly) – escaping it; elsewhere, others less deserving succumb to forces beyond their control. Some of the plays are unambiguously and intentionally serious: one, for example, follows the adventures of a boy within the autistic spectrum, determined to do a good deed but failing to realise the cost of his actions; another concerns reparations to Kenyans who suffered under the colonial administration during the Mau Mau insurgency; a third offers a challenging and doubtless contentious interpretation of a New Testament episode – the resurrection of Jesus. Other plays may appear lighter, even humorous, although darker threads almost always run through them. ‘Murchison’s Fragment’, which lends its title to the collection, is a story of lost opportunity set in London and east Africa; here the protagonist unwisely allows lust to overcome reason, with far-reaching consequences. The collection ends with a romantic love story in which a formidable barrier to a fulfilling relationship unexpectedly falls away. For each play a synopsis is provided, with additional notes where there is background interest.