Will Lucy Kirkland’s Maryland Return With A Sequel?

The BBC adaptation of Lucy Kirkwood’s Maryland touched the hearts of many. Kirkwood wrote the original script in just two hours, describing it as “a howl against the normalisation of male violence.” The plot zones in on two women (both named Mary) who run into one another at a police station after being sexually assaulted. Following a run at the Royal Court theatre in London, BBC Two transformed the drama into a short film starring Zawe Ashton, Hayley Squires, and Line Of Duty’s Daniel Mays.

Now that the hotly-anticipated project has aired, viewers may well be interested to learn if a sequel is in the works. Well, Kirkland’s rep has told Bustle that Maryland is “very much a one-off.” As it happens, the script has already made an impact on those who have come into contact with it. Vicky Featherstone, artistic director at the Royal Court, wrote on the theatre’s website: “We have all stepped up to her [Kirkwood’s] extraordinary rallying cry and are able to give her voice our space in search of some kind of understanding, howl, communal event in light of the horrific actions still being committed against all women and victims of gendered violence.”

Featherstone finished her statement by saying “We are so proud to be stepping up. We are devastated we still have to.” With violence against women showing no signs of abating, and a “total collapse” in rape prosecutions, we are lucky to have brave and skilful playwrights like Kirkwood who can hold a mirror up to our society and ask, as they say in Maryland, “What fresh hell do you need? Before you are as angry as we are?”