''Lorilei: A Meditation on Loss'' is a 2003 play by Tom Wright and Nicholas Harrington, based on a capital murder trial in
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, United States.
Theme
The play tells the true story of Lorilei Guillory, whose six-year-old son, Jeremy, was murdered in 1992 in
Iowa, Louisiana
Iowa () is a town in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 3,436 in 2020. It is part of the Lake Charles metropolitan statistical area.
History
The history of this region is filled with stories of the early Midwestern se ...
, by a man with
schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social wit ...
. During the second trial of the man convicted of the crime, Ricky Langley, Guillory testified for the defendant, stating her opinion that he was mentally ill at the time of the offence and should not be sentenced to die. The retrial ended in a verdict of
diminished capacity
In criminal law, diminished responsibility (or diminished capacity) is a potential defense by excuse by which defendants argue that although they broke the law, they should not be held fully criminally liable for doing so, as their mental funct ...
, rather than the original
death sentence
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...
.
A solo performance, the play is presented as a narrative constructed from the transcripts of the trial. It explores Guillory's struggle with the loss of her young child but also her compassion for the man who killed him.
Staging and reception
First staged in 2003 in Australia, the play has been presented around the world including at the
Edinburgh Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...
in 2005. Reviewing the 2005 London staging at The Old Red Lion, '' Guardian'' critic Michael Billington gave the play four stars out of five, calling it an "extraordinary evening" and explaining that, after watching the play and listening to an after-show discussion, "one comes to understand how it is possible for mercy to triumph over revenge." An adaptation for radio by
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
won the 2007 Sony Radio Award for Drama.
In 2014, the Justice Project Pakistan commissioned an
Urdu
Urdu (;"Urdu" '' A company toured Pakistan presenting the English and Urdu versions on alternating dates. ''
The News International
''The News International'', published in broadsheet size, is one of the largest English language newspapers in Pakistan. It is published daily from Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi/Islamabad. An overseas edition is published from London that cater ...
'' praised actor
Nimra Bucha
Nimra Bucha ( ur, ) is a Pakistani actress who has appeared in variety of TV serials, films, web-series and has also worked in theatre. She played a role of Saadat Hassan Manto's muse in Sarmad Khoosat's '' Manto'' which earned her a nominati ...
for her performance in English and described the story as deliberately slow-paced but "instantly gripping". Reviewing
Sania Saeed
Sania Saeed (born 28 August 1972) is a Pakistani actress and television host. Works mainly in television and theatre, Saeed is the recipient of numerous accolades including two PTV Awards, three Hum Awards and four Lux Style Awards.
She first ...
's performance of the Urdu version, ''
Dawn
Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's hori ...
'' said she showed "the kind of emotional investment in the script which makes art reflect life".