Tough Case

By David S. Craig

Sixteen-year-old Dane and his mom have relocated to Nova Scotia hoping to flee an abusive relationship with Dane’s father. In the midst of this, Dane has been getting into trouble with the law. He’s been caught breaking into and vandalizing an elderly woman’s home and is about to be charged with a host of serious offences unless he participates in a court-ordered restorative-justice program. With dreams of joining the military, Dane decides to co-operate so a criminal record won’t follow him. There he meets Nessa, a social worker who grew up in a tough north Halifax housing project and the only person able to connect with Dane. A contemporary story about one teen’s journey through the restorative justice system, a mother fighting for her son, the scared and angry victims of a senseless crime, and the mediator who helps them all come together.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press
• Release date: Feb 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9781770912625

David S. Craig

David S. Craig is one of Canada’s most prolific and successful dramatists. He has written 29 professionally produced dramatic works including his hit comedy Having Hope at Home and the internationally acclaimed Danny, King of the Basement. David's work has won numerous awards including The Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Production (three times), the Chalmers New Play Award (three times), the Rideau Award, The Canada Council Prize, The Writer’s Guild Prize for Radio Drama and a Geoffrey. Toronto’s NOW Magazine named David, “One of Canada’s Top Twenty Playwrights.”

Book preview

TOUGH CASE

By David S. Craig

Playwrights Canada Press

Toronto

Contents

A Courtroom Drama

Introduction

Playwright's Notes

Time

Place

Characters

Scene One

Scene Two

Scene Three

Scene Four

Scene Five

Scene Six

Scene Seven

Epilogue

Scene Seven (Alternate)

Epilogue

About the Author

Copyright

A Courtroom Drama Without the Courtroom

Tough Case is not a revolutionary play, but restorative justice—the process this play dramatizes—is a revolutionary new idea and an evolutionary next step that has the power to deeply enhance the way we achieve justice. It is a process that is, to many, counterintuitive and even offensive because it focuses on reconciliation rather than retribution. It demonstrates that in many cases justice can be achieved—indeed, justice is best served—without punishment.

I was commissioned to write this play by Jennifer Llewellyn, who will be making her own comments on the play in the pages that follow. Professor Llewellyn teaches law at Dalhousie University and is one of Canada’s leading authorities on the process of restorative justice (RJ). Nova Scotia, where Jennifer lives, has the largest RJ practice in North America and the second largest in the world (second only to New Zealand). Any youth between the ages of eleven and eighteen who is charged by the police can be referred to RJ instead of going through the regular court system. The program has been running for over ten years and has resulted in a decreased rate of recidivism (the rate at which offenders reoffend) and a high level of satisfaction on the part of the victims who participate. Unfortunately, it is a success story that is almost completely unknown, and when known it is often misunderstood. Jennifer felt that a drama would be able to capture the powerful emotional catharsis that a restorative-justice meeting can engender in the participants better than theory or text. The audience isn’t told how it works. They see and feel the process on a visceral level because crime is, at its root, a deeply emotional experience for offender and victim (which is why crime dramas are so popular).

But what is RJ? Essentially it looks at the world the way theatre does—through a relational lens. This web of relationships includes the guy who steals your car or, in the case of Grace Ross, the young man, Dane Timbrell, who vandalizes her home. She has a relationship with Dane that involves hurt, disempowerment, loss and fear, despite the fact that she has, until the RJ meeting, never met him. And Dane has a relationship with Grace Ross, although he would prefer not to think of it. How are these feelings to be resolved? Were this case to go through a traditional courtroom trial, Grace and Dane would never have met. Grace was not a witness to the crime and therefore unnecessary to the task of proving guilt or affirming innocence. In RJ, the relationship between victim and offender is at the centre of the process and the hurt is at the centre of the relationship—a relationship that needs to be if not healed then at least acknowledged and improved.

As you will see, Tom Ross, Grace Ross’s adult son, thinks this is a load of weak-kneed, thug-hugging malarkey. His character provides an essential push back because none of us, I would suggest, are immune from wanting revenge when we are hurt. Tom wants Dane punished. He wants Dane put away, despite the solid evidence that putting non-violent offenders in a brutalizing environment makes small criminals into big criminals.

In creating the play, Jennifer invited me to spend a month in Nova Scotia visiting four different RJ agencies and attending three RJ circles, as well as speaking with judges, attorneys, professionals from Correctional Services Canada, a deputy chief of police, community-response officers and RJ participants. As draft followed draft, I received vocal, and sometimes heated, feedback from RJ practitioners. The result is a play that takes the two-to-four month RJ process, from intake to resolution, and condenses it into a sixty-minute drama. It has an ending that, while unsatisfactory to one of the characters, does show that reconciliation is real and possible and has far-reaching implications for the way we relate to each other every day.

I find the RJ process enormously dramatic. It has the appeal of a courtroom drama without being in a courtroom. Bringing someone who was hurt together with the person who is responsible for that hurt is tense. But when that tension breaks, as it often does in laughter or tears or even anger, there emerges a deeper resolution to the crime that exists on a relational level. The potential is very exciting and I have been very proud to play a part.

David S. Craig

Toronto, 2015

Introduction

It is an honour to be able to offer an introduction to Tough Case. As I sit here reflecting on the play and the journey of its creation I find myself back in my neighbourhood coffee shop in west-end Halifax, introducing David Craig to restorative justice and persuading him to accept

Reviews for Tough Case

[sheilacornelisse · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This short play deals with sixteen-year-old Dane who, is entered into a restorative-justice program to make amends for vandalizing the home of an elderly woman. It deals very well with the complex relationships between the victim and the perpetrator, their respective families and friends, and the justice system. Recommended read for high school drama, civics, and sociology classes.