Stuck in the Middle with You
2012. English journalist Paula Davey receives an award from her fellow writers for her 'true life' book, Stuck in the Middle with You: An RUC Story. September 1996.
Davey's story begins with five Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers stuck in the back of a Landrover during a riot at the top of Belfast's Albertbridge Road.
Over the course of the play, we hear their stories—ordinary people caught in extraordinary times. By turns darkly humorous and bleakly factual, the production is based on true, and until now largely untold, stories.
The play reveals the constant anxiety of living under threat, with some turning to alcohol to cope, and examines the emotions of many officers during the ‘Patton Report’-led transition from the RUC to the Police Service for Northern Ireland (PSNI), and deals candidly with issues such as collusion and misogyny.
