Eye of a Needle

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Description

Laurence is a caseworker at the department formerly known as the UK Border Agency. He prefers drug-fuelled nights out with the lads to the spirit-crushing accounts of the asylum seekers whose future he presides over during the day. But when Ugandan gay rights activist Natale Bamadi arrives, her tenacity and charisma awaken him to the cruelty of the system he serves. Laurences boss Ted, hounded by his superiors, detects the fragile beginnings of a passion and exploits it in order to expose his suspicion that Natale is in fact heterosexual. Caught up in the systems machinations, Natale is forced to withdraw her application for asylum and is deported back to her death in Uganda. Unable to accept the inhumanity of the system Laurence walks out of his job leaving Ted alone struggling against the tide of an agency not fit for purpose.

Author Bio

Chris MacDonald is an actor and writer from London. He trained at Drama Centre following a degree in English at Nottingham University. This is Chris' first full-length play. His shorts have been performed at Theatre 503, Yvonne Arnaud and the Bush Theatre. He has written and directed two short films, one of which has played at International Film Festivals in the USA and Europe. As an actor he has worked for the RSC, Propellor and throughout the country in various touring productions.