KNOT HEART - Almeida Theatre

Lisa DillonPhoto: Keith PattisonSuccessful children’s television presenter Lucy sits in the back garden of her Islington family home, aGeorgian townhouse on Gibson Square, preparing some opium to smoke. Her mother, red wine inhand, reluctantly helps her by holding the drug. She didn’t mind when her daughter smoked a bit ofcannabis when she was younger. However things are now, whether they realise it at this moment,much more serious. Lucy has just lost her job presenting the popular Children’s BBC programmeAnimal House, caught by her producer smoking drugs in her dressing room: a sign that things will gofrom bad to worse.As Lucy loses touch with the normality of work and friendship, heroin becomes the be all and end allof her existence: her addiction spirals out of control and we see her plunged to the depths of drugdependency. Her mother, desperate to do the right thing, will go to any lengths to keep her daughterclose to her: from giving her money for drugs, to paying her debts and cooking her favouritechildhood food, all the while in a heartfelt - and perhaps misguided - attempt to keep her daughterfrom danger.Their family relationships come under heavy pressure: Lucy’s lawyer sister, the hard-faced Angela,urges the family to wake up to reality, but battles with dark demons of her own; and Barbara clings toher younger daughter for fear of losing another person she loves - but at what cost? In and out of thefamily sphere move a number of men - friends turned drug dealers, doctors and nurses: some thatcause harm and others there to help. Lucy, for her part, has to finally untether herself from the weightof expectation of others and the dangerous codependency of her family relationships, to find her ownstrength: unpicking the knot of the heart. Finally, revealing some truths from her past, and freeingherself from the grip of a family love that has turned dangerous, Lucy sees a life beyond the darktimes she has fallen into.Introduction to the PlayA detailed plot summary follows.Resource Pack: The Knot of the Heart4