Blog written by David Chriscole.
No Hiding Place is an unapologetically explicit story about human trafficking, told through the voice of a victim, a young Nigerian woman called Danielle.
This story started life in my very first session of WriteForTheStage Intro course back in October 2016. We conducted a mind exercise designed to 'mine the imagination' as our tutor Mike Heath put it. During the exercise various words and phrases were dredged up randomly, and written down. After five minutes, I ended up with 65 words, all quite dark in nature but that seemed to be loosely connected. We continued the course and I stored these 65 words. It was a few weeks later when I came back to them to figure out what I could
create.
Here they are, see what you think:
Cars whiz by, the darkness falls on the streets.
Light beams blind me as I wait to cross.
Fumes of diesel and petrol fill my nose, make me sneeze.
A gap in the traffic, I run to the other side.
Horns blaring, tyres screeching, blackness fills my eyes.
Blue flashes, sirens wailing, trolley thumping.
Doctors prodding, touching my face, shining a light in my eyes.
After a series of brain-storming sessions I came up with the notion that this was a single event in which someone is so desperate, they risk life and limb to run across a busy road. It's taken a lot longer to figure out who and why, but the process of discovering what these words mean has been a lot of fun.
I never intended to write about a human trafficking victim, let alone go through with some explicit detail what a young Nigerian girl has suffered at the hands of men. The theme simply arrived, completely out of the blue whilst I tried to figure out what my subject was running away from, or to.
For quite some time I didn't fix the nationality of the victim, but having had an earlier version read at the last Development Week, it was pretty obvious I needed to base it in a particular culture. I decided on Nigeria as the base, not because of any trafficking statistic, it was purely about the accent. You see, I adore the Nigerian accent, it is one of my favourite's. It is hugely powerful, passionate and descriptive, painting a picture with vibrant colours.
I have not yet heard the piece spoken with the Nigerian accent, although that's how I hear the words when I'm writing them. Development Week 12 will be the first time this is happening, and I have secured the fabulous Misha Ade as my choice actor for the piece. Misha graduated from ALRA North in Wigan during 2017, having completed her MA in Professional Acting.
The story of Danielle is still evolving, but she takes us on a harrowing journey from happiness at 14 years old in Nigeria, through loss, despair, fear and abuse, ending in England some ten years later. Development Week gives me as a writer valuable feedback from an audience and can change the direction the piece is going. From telling me what you like, to what you dislike about the piece, it helps me to hone the story to make it more engaging, and enjoyable, despite the subject matter.
Human trafficking is a subject we very rarely hear about, or know enough about. Victims are all around us, yet we don't see them, they are invisible, even in plain sight. Perhaps we need to turn on the light.
David Chriscole.
