Breaking the Code

Over the last few years, I have been privileged to see a few excellent productions of this thought-provoking tragic play “Breaking the Code” by  Hugh Whitemore and this production performed by Southport Dramatic Club is definitely up there with the best as this was an outstanding production with both excellent direction and great performances by the actors. The play was first performed in 1986 and encompasses the tragic life of British mathematical and logical genius Alan Turing, who has now been acknowledged as one the most innovative and powerful thinkers of the 20th century.

Alan Turing was recruited to the top secret Bletchley Park during World War II to work on breaking the German Enigma Machine code, a cipher machine used by the German military to encrypt radio communications which gave them a big advantage at the beginning of the war, especially for their U-boats which were attacking allied convoys in the Atlantic. Marian Rejewski and her team of Polish mathematician-cryptanalysts had built their own a code-breaking machine called the Bomba in 1938, but the Bomba only worked if German procedures stayed the same however by 1940 these procedures had changed meaning their machine was useless. SoTuring and others built on this work and designed a related, but different, code-breaking machine also known as the Bomba thankfully they succeeded in breaking the code meaning they were able to decipher the German forces encrypted messages, providing vital intelligence for the Allies in their war effort. He is also credited with being a founder of computer science for his work in Artificial Intelligence. He carried on undertaking research in this field after the war at the National Physical Laboratory (1945-1948), then at Manchester University, where he was Director of the Computing Laboratory. But while reporting a robbery at his home to the police he confessed to being a homosexual which was illegal at that time this resulted in a prosecution and in 1952, he was convicted of Gross Indecency, and to twelve months of hormone “therapy.” Unfortunately, he also lost his security clearance because he had a criminal record and homosexuality was considered a security risk, so he would not be able to work for Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the British government’s postwar code-breaking centre. Sadly in 1954 he committed suicide with poison, although there has been some discussion about the validity of this theory. In 2009 the Prime Minister apologized on behalf of the British government, for Turing’s unfair treatment and four years later the Queen granted Turing a royal Pardon

This outstanding production was directed by Andrew Sloman with Leslie Cheesman as Assistant Director, their overall ideas and use of the stage area while blocking along with choice of cast was spot on. The very talented cast, were all just right and appeared comfortable in their roles producing excellent and believable characterisations, while working well together.Diction and projection was very good meaning the dialogue could be heard and the story followed easily which was very important in this very wordy play which had lots of technical content.However the highlight of the evening was Giles Davidson’s portrayal of Alan Turing which can only be described as superb. He held the audience’s attention through all the long speeches that were full of technical jargon, his small mannerisms and stutter were spot on and not over the top which helped show to the audience that Turing had internal struggles and feelings, they also helped to strengthen the character portrayed. Giles’s interpretation of Turing’s tragic emotional journey in life was compelling.

Other members of the excellent cast included Edward James as Turing’s boyhood friend Christopher, whose early death had a lasting effect on Turing’s life, Edward also doubled as Nikos. Turing’s mother Sara played by Rachel Davies was not very intuitive about her son at the beginning but was incredibly supportive when the police charged him. Phil Povey was the Policeman DS Nick Ross, who felt there was more to Turing’s life than he was allowed to know, unfortunately he had to arrest Turing because he had told the police about his homosexuality in his statement. Gary Simpson as Dilly Knox the man in charge at Bletchley Park tries without success to advise Turing about marriage and living with Homosexuality in those unenlightened times. Lisa Tatler as Pat Green, Turing’s colleague at Bletchley Park, Pat was in love with Turing, and it turns out she was aware of his homosexuality and would have married him anyway. Chris Smalley was a seedy Ron Miller a hustler and the catalyst of Turing’s ruin. and Fi Billington was Jane Smith a person of authority in some unnamed secret government department.

 The costumes by Debbie Moss and Sally Bartlett suited the characters in both timelines well helping to provided authenticity and enhance the general feeling of the production. The stage area was used very efficiently, it was divided  into two sets with minimalistic set dressing, the actors moved from side to side for the different scenes and the use of highly effective lighting with pictures and film projected onto a back screen was used to indicated to the audience the location of the scene and what timeline they were in. The change from scene to scene was very smooth keeping the play at a good pace. My colleague passed the comment when you were watching the scene on one side of the stage the other side of the stage did not intrude into the action, well done Stage Manager Chris Ratcliffe, Assistant Stage Manager/ Properties Cath Dunne and all backstage crew with prompt Joanne Yates. Rob Murtagh and Neil Yates for their Lighting Design & Operation, Scott Crawford Projection Design and Operation and David Proffitt on Sound, the set designers Graeme Hunt and Andrew Sloman with scenic artist Bob Jessamine and Set construction by the SDC Staging Team, all the above were especially important to the success of this play

Well done to all involved in this outstanding excellently produced play and thank you for a very compelling yet thought-provoking evening.

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