Wormwood

by Lesley Masters

Wormwood is a commissioned play in the London Radio Playwrights' Festival.

Synopsis of the play:

Wormwood is about two young people whose lives undergo dramatic changes. Igor a sixteen year old from Chernobyl and Sophie fifteen, from London. The play opens in Minsk, some years after Igor has been evacuated from Pripyat, a town set in beautiful natural surroundings twenty miles from Chernobyl.

It is a stark contrast living in a grey tower block compared to his early childhood in the clean, fresh countryside. Igor misses the countryside and recalls walking in the pine forest with his grandmother. He finds the plant Wormwood and is told the Bible story of the star called Wormwood.

When the reactor at Chernobyl explodes, Igor's father Vadim, stays behind to help and receives a large dose of radiation. After being evacuated to Minsk, the family suffers tragic consequences from the effects of radiation. Igor becomes head of the family and is determined for something better in life. He jumps at the chance of a holiday in England when offered by a charity.

Sophie is living in the English countryside with her mother when Igor comes to spend the summer. She misses London and hasn't come to terms with her father's suicide and the discovery he was not the man she thought he was. Hounded out of London by media attention and the loss of their home, Sophie's grief turns inwards.

At first Sophie rejects Igor, he is different and sickly looking. Igor is determined to win her friendship. Slowly they learn about the tragedies in each other's lives and Sophie's anger turns to trust. The past threatens to spoil Sophie's happiness when a local reporter reveals the truth about her father.

Towards the end of his stay Igor is faced with a dilemma as he falls ill. Meanwhile the two have become firm friends having both overcome traumas which changed their lives but brought them together.

 

The photo shows the playwright and the cast of Wormwood: (left to right - standing) Frazer Brown, Mike Lloyd, Jamie Ripman, Philip Ilic, Elaine Ives-Cameron, Lesley Masters (playwright), Heather Page, (seated) Daniela Denby-Ashe and Tessa Wojtczak.

Direction, post-production and sound design by Tim Crook.

 

LESLEY MASTERS - PLAYWRIGHT

Lesley's writing career began in 1990 when her first play Letting Go won first prize at Southampton Writers' Conference. The play was broadcast by BBC and received a large post bag. She went on to win Southampton's radio drama prize twice more. After doing some radio drama workshops with director Tim Crook, Wormwood won a commission in the London Radio Playwrights' Festival and Lesley had a second play shortlisted in the Festival. Through Wormwood and the interest it aroused in Belarus, Lesley was invited by the Ambassador from Belarus in London to speak at a conference in Nottingham last year to the Chernobyl charities. Lesley is married with two children and lives near Woking, Surrey. At present she is working as PR and fund raiser for New Approaches to Cancer and she continues to write.

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You can also read what the newspapers said about our first Play of the Month in December 1997.

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