Bad Lads is a theatrical call for justice

Bad Lads exposes the “horrific physical, sexual and emotional abuse” experienced by detainees at Medomsley Detention Centre, County Durham, in the 1980s – so described by Damian Hinds, then minister for prisons, in October 2023. Accurately billed as a tale of “oppression and resilience”, the action is created from a story by Jimmy Coffey and others who, having committed offences when aged between 17 and 21, were subjected at Medomsley to the “short, sharp shock” detention regime introduced there in 1979.

Three characters tell the tale, their words projected on to the above-stage screen as they are spoken. In 2013, Older Jackie (Danny Raynor) receives a letter inviting him to take part in a police investigation into abuse at Medomsley, titled Operation Seabrook. He is reluctant to remember, let alone to speak out. Jackie’s younger self, personified by Robin Paley Yorke, encourages him. Together with the sign language Performance Interpreter (Craig Painting), they retrieve memories of the three months Younger Jackie spent incarcerated for nicking a milk float while high on magic mushrooms.

The action, progressing at pace under Jenny Sealey’s direction, carries us through Jackie’s experiences, at once intensely personal and a template for the trajectories and effects of abuse. This is deeply affecting.

Beyond this, producers Graeae theatre company, in association with Live Theatre, have a wider social aim. They want the production to “call for justice” for former detainees. But for this call to have heft, we need wider contextualisation – even if only in the form of projections of short, sharp, shocking facts.

Bad Lads is at Live theatre, Newcastle; touring until 15 November

Photograh by Von Fox Promotions