There is a dark theme at the heart of Anthony Weigh’s controversial play, ‘2,000 Feet Away’ which makes it an important, provocative work.

Weigh’s play is set in the present time in the state of Iowa in the United States. Under Iowa state law, convicted child sex offenders are not allowed to live or be within 2,000 feet of many prohibited places including schools, day care centres, parks, shopping malls, pedestrian zones, swimming pools, and bus stops.

It has forced these offenders underground. They live out their existences in their cars, trucks or in dedicated motels on the outskirts of Iowa, and the statistics indicate that some 30% of offenders have vanished from the public record.

The play features a number of sad stories:- Piano teacher AG who is convicted of having sex with one of his young male students, and moves back in with his parents only to find that the local residents have rallied together to push him out of his family home.

Another scene has a woman deliberately set up a child care centre in her area, so that an interested convicted pedophile would not be able to move into her area. Later in the play, the house in which a sex offender has been living is burnt down, and the sex offender has to flee and go underground.

Since time memorial we human beings have always tried to put to one side, to isolate, those people in society who don’t fit in. Sometimes we have done so very aggressively, and cruelly. With ‘2,000 Feet Away’, takes a piercing look at this whole dynamic…The play offers no answers, it just exposes the situation very nakedly.

Lee Lewis directed the production strongly, and got great performances from a very strong cast. That great dramatic actor Colin Moody played the leading role of Correctional Officer, Deputy Moss. He was supported by such a strong cast, including Darren Weller, Nicholas Hope, Belinda McClory and Nicholas Papademetriou.