CityLife

Maria's refuge in writing

MARIA Roberts' first play is based on her experiences of living in a women's refuge with her then 18-month-old son. She was 22 when she escaped to the refuge, after an abusive four-year relationship.

Throughout her stay there, Urmston-based Maria managed to continue with a degree in English literature and Spanish at Manchester University, although she admits, ruefully: "It was hard writing essays and fearing for my life at the same time."

It was because of fear that Maria led a very private student life. "I lived in a secret world - I wasn't allowed to tell anybody where I lived, apart from close female friends," she says.

That was seven years ago. Since then, Maria has forged a career as an arts writer, and has now written her first full-length play.

Her creation, Coitophobia, has been nominated for an award by human rights group, Amnesty International.

The two protagonists are Katie and Gemma. They meet in a refuge while fleeing domestic violence and become inseparable, living through each other's relationships, despite their opposing values.

Katie is married but is forever having affairs and flings, whereas Gemma believes in monogamy and fears for Katie's marriage.

Gemma's life changes when she is hit by multiple sclerosis, which she believes was brought on by an abusive relationship, another theme in the play based on Maria's experience - a friend's illness was brought on by a violent attack.

Sobering

So far so serious. But although the play sounds sobering, to say the least, Coitophobia is a comedy drama, with Maria using wit to explore the serious.

In one comedy scene, Gemma waxes the legs of Katie's cross-dressing son, Tom, who is to be his mother's bridesmaid. But the scene is not so funny for actor Freddie Machie, playing 15-year-old Tom, who will have his legs waxed every night for the 16-day run of the show. "There's a lot of very dark, black humour in the characters," said Maria. She points to Tom's character as an example, saying: "Tom is very effeminate, with a bisexual girlfriend who dresses like a man."

It took Maria two years to write the play "It's a long time to be developing characters - I go to bed and they're still talking to me," she says.

Maria's play goes on to examine open relationships. Katie's open relationship results in her living a double life. On the night before her wedding, Katie reminisces about a rendezvous in a London hotel room with her lover a week earlier. "Her memories are played out on stage in a salacious scene involving raspberries. It's a play of realism, surrealism and parallel worlds, between the real and the imagined," says Maria, pointing out that living in a parallel world is a natural part of life.

"We're always showing something to somebody and hiding it from somebody else," adds Maria, who marvels at the contrast to her life of seven years ago, living in her refuge, to her present situation, as she prepares to go to Edinburgh.

"All I had at the refuge were a couple of bags," she smiles.

For further information on the show at the Edinburgh Fringe, go to blue-masque.com.