Abstract

Mussels (2015) by Sue Healy, a prose drama and inner of BBC Radio Four’s Opening Lines initiative.

Winner of BBC Radio Four Opening Lines Award, this 15” prose drama was read by actor Dervla Kirwan and first broadcast in September 2015 and since that date, has been hosted on the broadcasters’ website for five time-bound occasions.

The story interrogates the contrasting degrees of displacement and acceptance experienced by Vietnamese migrants held at a Norfolk prison, and their Irish prison education tutor, herself an immigrant to the UK. Told from the point of view of the Irish tutor, Triona, the piece examines her journey from discombobulation and alienation in her new environment to an uneasy acceptance and enjoyment of the comfort of the new life. Initially, Triona and the prisoners’ common status elicits a mutual understanding and empathy. As the year progresses however, Triona’s more ready acceptance by the locals pushes her to betray a Vietnamese man with whom she feels she had developed some friendship, but who had compromised her position at the prison. The play examines the process of assimilation, divided loyalties, the changing attitudes towards Irish immigrants to the UK – and the uncomfortable issues prompted by this new acceptance .