Taking Care of Baby

Dennis Kelly

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781840027785
• eBook ISBN: 9781849433617
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

'None of this is the truth. It's just people saying things. It's all subjective. There's the truth, and there's what people think is the truth, and it all depends on how you slant it…' Taking Care of Baby tackles the complex case of Donna McAuliffe, a young mother convicted of the murder of her two infant children. In a series of probing interviews the people in this extraordinary story, including Donna herself and her bewildered mother Lynn, reveal how they may have harmed those they sought to protect. Dennis Kelly's ambitious play uses the popular techniques of drama-documentary and verbatim theatre to explore how truth is compromised by today's information culture.

The following has been taken word for word from interviews and correspondence. Nothing has been added and everything is in the subjects’ own words, though some editing has taken place. Names have not been changed.

DONNA: And so I’m, erm, just erm, standing there, standing there and this girl, there’s this girl lying on the top bunk and she’s not saying – she had thinning hair on one side, alopecia, I think it was – and she’s not saying a word, she’s just staring at the ceiling and I was too scared to move really, so I just stood there, I mean, and the door’s, erm, closed, just closed behind me and I’m, erm, you know, in this cell with this girl and she’s not – do you want all this?

Beat.

and she’s not looking, she’s not looking at me.

So I just put my stuff on the, er, er, I put it on the er, bottom bunk, I was gonna put it on, erm, on the er, cupboards, shelf drawers, I was going to put it in the drawers but I didn’t know which were hers and I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to open them or anything.

Oh yeah, and there were people in, erm, on the landing, I mean in the other cells on the landing, women, I mean, and they were like hissing and sometimes calling, you know, things... You know, killer, er, murderer, bitch...you murderer, you bitch, you murdering bitch, we’re going to kill you you murdering bitch...cunt, things like that. And I just lay, I just lay on my bunk with my things there around me because I was too scared to, I didn’t even take my shoes off actually, I was still wearing my shoes, but I was like that for about forty minutes and then this girl, the girl above me, er, she suddenly spoke and she had this, I think she was either from the, either from Wales or the West country because her accent was quite, it was a mixture, or, but I couldn’t tell and she said, erm, she said ‘Don’t speak’ she said, erm, ‘Don’t speak because I’m trying not to hurt you. I’ve got six months left so I’m trying not to hurt you, so if you make me hurt you, I’m really, really gonna fucking hurt you.’

Beat.

And, and she meant it as well. She was really trying her hardest not to hurt me. I mean not for me, for her, you know.

Silence.

And, erm, then she erm, she kept saying what she was going to do if I made her hurt me and it was like, it was like cutting my eyes and stamping on my stomach and my face and putting bleach in my eyes after she’d cut the er, sliced the er, made a cut in, sliced the er, eyeball and things, it was a lot about the eyes, actually, she concentrated a lot about, on and around the eyes and that went on for about two hours.

Beat.

That was my first night in prison.

Lynn approaching a door.

LYNN: So I’m on this train coming back from Thornton and I was absolutely at my lowest ebb, I mean I think that was my darkest hour. My family was collapsing. My community, my friends – well, who I thought were my friends – were suddenly crossing the road to avoid me. And I mean literally. Someone actually did that, someone I knew very well saw me coming and just as I was hoisting a smile on she actually crossed over. You think ‘I’m living with the tragedy of having lost my boy, how bad can it get, oh look, I’ve lost a grandchild, how bad can it get, oh, I’ve lost another one, how bad can it get, oh, my daughter’s in prison, how bad can it get?’ and it just keeps getting worse. And at the time, well I’d been a district councillor for the last twelve years and I was actually being considered as a candidate for parliamentary elections, which, for someone like me, was really exciting and I’d just had a meeting with Michael, Michael Dunn the district party chairperson in Thornton, and he’s said ‘Look, Lynn, I’m going to stand by you whatever your decision is’ which in the Labour Party is code for ‘Step down, Lynn, no-one’s going to vote for you now’. And I know that doesn’t seem like much compared to the other things, but for some reason it really hurt. I don’t know why but it just seemed really, it just felt really...

personal.

You know, like the other things you think ‘be strong and with God’s help you’ll get through, be strong and with God’s help...’ but for some reason with this thing I just thought ‘Okay God: you really are taking the pee now.’

She knocks on the door.

And then

something happened.

She knocks again.

I’m sitting there on this train, feeling that everything has collapsed, when this woman and her daughter –

The door opens. A woman comes out.

Hello there, how are you?

WOMAN: Alright.

LYNN: Good, good. I won’t take up much of your time, my name’s Lynn Barrie and I’m running as an independent candidate in the local elections, will you be voting this time round?

WOMAN: No.

LYNN: Can I ask...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Characters
• Taking Care of Baby