The play, which premiered at the Royal Court in London in 2021 as a fictional artistic response to recent real-life events, deals with the violence that women are forced to confront in their daily lives. This new 30-minute adaptation, co-directed with acclaimed documentary filmmaker Brian Hill, follows two ordinary women, both named Mary, and a chorus of modern-day thugs as they tell their assault stories.

Zawe Ashton and Hayley Squires play two Marys who meet at a police station in the aftermath of their respective sexual assaults. They are aided by a cast of furies who rail against the injustices that the women face both in the play and in the real world. It will air on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer on July 20 at 22.00 BST.

“I wrote the original play as a howl against the way we have normalised violence against women as something to be accommodated by women themselves, rather than protested by all of us,” says Lucy Kirkwood. In light of the fact that women, particularly women of colour, cannot currently rely on the forces of law and order to protect or respect their bodies. In response to the recent deaths of women such as Sarah Everard, Bibaa Henry, Nicole Smallman, and Sabina Nessa, as well as the anxiety and fear that we culture girls to expect and accept in general. I hope the film will breathe new life into that protest, but I wish it weren’t such an urgent conversation.”

Lucy Kirkwood is one of the most exciting voices in British theatre, whose work has won awards for its portrayal of issues around social justice, climate change, and politics,” says Suzy Klein, Head of Arts and Classical Music TV at the BBC.

Maryland brings Lucy’s piercing, incisive vision to the issue of male violence against women, and I’m thrilled that it will be broadcast on the BBC with such an incredible cast. It’s not a play that provides easy solutions to one of our time’s most pressing social issues, but it’s impossible to look away from this compelling work, brought to us by one of the most trusted and sensitive voices in contemporary drama.

Complete cast list:

Hayley Squires as Mary

Also Zawe Ashton PC Mary Daniel Mayes PC, Moody Justine Mitchell plays Eddowes.

Zainab Hasan, Jennifer Joseph, Sarah Lam, Gabriella Leon, and Sarah Woodward are the Furies.

Maryland is a BBC Film production by Century Films. Caroline Levy is the producer, Brian Hill and Lucy Kirkwood are the directors, and Vicky Featherstone and Lucy Morrison for the Royal Court and Suzy Klein and Rose Garnett for the BBC are the executive producers.