This week has been epic on so many levels, and the blog will jump around, just as my head and heart has done this week. At the beginning of the week Key Change went into rehearsals for Open Clasp first national tour. The cast shared their feelings about being back with Key Change and Open Clasp, like coming home and how much they loved and miss (still) New York. How it was a dip coming back, but then they all got on with work and life, including mending broken feet and bodies, plus welcoming into the world new children – and falling in love.
We returned to the script and shared our experiences of teachers (one cast member saying how (when in junior school) she had been told to stand in the waste paper bin, and others were told to ignore the girl in the bin ‘cos that’s where the rubbish goes’). Philip Larkin made an appearance and the following verse from This Be The Verse was quoted
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
And it was on this day, whilst we were upstairs in the rehearsal rooms at West End Women & Girls Centre that Jodie Wilkinson was walking down a road not ten minutes away from us and she was murdered at 3.50pm.
Jodie Wilkinson was a young woman we had worked with when she was 20. Jodie, along with other young women who were homeless, directly contributed to the creation of Emily a character in Rattle & Roll which was toured in 2010. The character of Emily was a combination of all the women’s stories but the essence of her was based on Jodie. Emily was funny, vulnerable and had a desire to live life to the full (if she had the opportunity to).
In Rattle & Roll you see Emily trying to make a go of life, she’s got her own flat and a friend who is looking out for her (a true friend, someone who has baked her a cake ‘and no-one has ever baked me a cake before’). However on her 18th birthday Emily is visited by two young women she’d known in the hostel, those that used to bully her. They rip her tracksuit and burst her balloon. But Emily has stability, a flat and a friend and a birthday cake and she survives this moment.
I met Jodie again this year when we were back at Low Newton prison. Jodie said she was inside because she had breached her probation; she looked well, safe and happy. It was lovely to see her and she talked fondly about the company and Rattle & Roll.
On hearing about her death its been said that on release from prison Jodie was homeless, hungry and once again vulnerable.
Last night and by some really weird coincidence I met another woman who helped to create Rattle & Roll, one of the GAP women. She asked had I heard about Jodie, adding that when she had, the first thing she thought about was the play (saying ‘that’s how I met Jodie, through the play’).
When I saw Jodie in June I saw a young woman lost to a world that she could so easily get lost in.
You can hear from all those who worked with Jodie, those that knew her and loved her. She was generous, funny and open to change. And she was also vulnerable to others.
I am so sorry for all those who feel her loss, for those that witnessed her murder, for Jodie and for our society that fails those that need our help.
Tonight we preview Key Change then it opens in London on Monday, with a performance at the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday next. We will take Jodie with us, and champion the need for funding to support for young women and women at risk of offending and for those released from prison
Tonight’s performance of Key Change is dedicated to Jodie.
