Finishing Touches
Looking at the impact of childhood sexual abuse on four adult survivors
‘Finishing Touches’ is a compelling and sensitive observation of the impact of childhood sexual abuse on four survivors at various ages and stages of adult life.
Relations between mother and daughter, Carol and Dawn, are at breaking point with family friend Neil struggling to maintain the equilibrium. But a chance encounter between Neil and policeman Roy, a friend he hasn’t seen since boarding school, prises the lid from another problematic can of worms. As these four lives become increasingly intertwined, their owners find the courage to look back, relive and step forward in this dynamic, modern treatment of an important and challenging subject.
More about the play…
Finishing Touches came about when Dr Liz Davies, Reader in Child Protection at London Metropolitan University attended a performance of Brian’s play Where is your Mama gone which explored the impact on lives of children brought up in the care system. Dr Davies approached the playwright to write a new play about issues around historical child sexual abuse, institutional abuse and grooming. Dr. Davies introduced Brian Daniels to Leigh Day Law firm of great repute in supporting victims of abuse. Both Alison Day, a partner at Leigh Day and Adrian Jewitt Head Of Marketing came to see Where is your Mama gone and without hesitation they commissioned Brian Daniels in 2015 to write a play looking particularly at ‘peer on peer’ abuse and other issues around historical sexual and physical abuse.
Finishing Touches played to a packed house at the Barbican in August 2016 and then for the Dept. Of Criminology and Social Work at Leeds Beckett University before being booked to launch the arts programme at the new Fitzrovia Chapel Arts building – the former Middlesex Hospital Chapel for three performances in June 2017.
