Miss Mary's Room

Tim and Pat always had each other's backs growing up in a rough part of Washington, DC. Tim's mother is an addict, so he spends his time at the home of his friend Pat. Tim calls Pat's mum Miss Mary because she is kind, patient and almost saintly. A nurse and widow, she's also a skilled musician and plays the organ in her Catholic church.

The boys fall through the cracks at school and start working for drug dealer Rollo. A violent incident gets them arrested. Miss Mary strains under the emotional and financial pressures of keeping Pat out of jail but they know that the American legal system needs contacts and money. Tim, on the other hand, faces justice alone with an absentee public defender.

George Pelecanos wrote Miss Mary's Room for his short story collection The Martini Shot. He writes about crime in the area of DC where he grew up. He has been called "the Zola of Washington DC" and received Emmy nominations and countless awards for his books and TV work, writing and producing for HBO's The Wire and Treme.

Nick Pelecanos, aged 26, co-directed the production.

All other parts played by the company:
Victoria Wallace
Makonnen Brown
Emily Perkins
Peter McCabe
Eden Marryshow
Sydney Beveridge

Organ by Todd Caldwell
Written by George Pelecanos
Directed by Nick Pelecanos and Judith Kampfner
Produced and Adapted by Judith Kampfner
A Corporation for Independent Media production for BBC Radio 4.