Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitmore dates from 1986, but I’d only previously seen the 1996 TV adaptation starring Derek Jacobi which was very good.
So when I learnt the other week that there was a new production in London I thought I should go and see it, as Alan Turing is a fascinating man who had a tragic end to his life. He was instrumental in decrypting the Enigma code during WWII, and went on to be an early pioneer in computing in Manchester University. And yet, because he was gay, he was prosecuted and ended up committing suicide having been forced to take drugs to “cure” him (Of course Gordon Brown recently apologised to him and others who suffered this humiliation).
Whitmore’s play covers all of this to some extent or another, and he personalises it of course, with the inclusion of the man who he fell out with and ended up being prosecuted over, his mother and a great female friend that he had in Bletchley.
The relatively young cast in this production were very good, and what was especially interesting was its location – in Kew Steam Museum. It certainly added a certain air to procedings. A good evening – and it finishes tonight!