Most of us hope never to meet a child killer, let alone delve into their mind and find ourselves starting to sympathise with them.

But at Park Theatre this month audiences will see that exact scenario played out in Frozen with Finsbury actor Mark Rose, playing the role of the murderer.

“It is a chance to go behind the headlines,“ says the 42-year-old, “and the sensational parts of those abduction stories that we see in the media and which we are all obsessed with as a society. It really examines what it is like for the people involved.“

The drama by Bryony Lavery places three characters – mother Nancy, child killer Ralph and psychiatrist Agnetha – under the microscope.

It received rave reviews when it was performed at the National Theatre in 2002, going on to transfer to Broadway and win a Tony Award and is now it is being brought back to the London stage by The Blueprint Theatre Company based in Finsbury.

Mark, who has appeared in Coronation Street and Emmerdale, used to see the posters for Frozen when he acted at the National and two years ago read it in one sitting.

Enfield Independent:

Mark Rose plays the killer Ralph

“It just blew me away, it is one of the best plays ever written. It just hit a chord and I knew we had to do it.“

He adds: “Everyone sits there and goes ‘what would I do if that was my sister or daughter?’ and that’s why the play is brilliant. We want people to ask that.“

Mark, who moved to London in 1997 fresh out of drama school and settled on the Bevin Court council estate, set up Blueprint five-years-ago with friends Sally Grey and Mark Sands and their aim is to produce work that engages the local community.

This ethos helped them secure £15,000 funding from Arts Council towards the cost of the £60,000 production, and Mark says: “We don’t just want to put on play and forget about it and have no life beyond it. So we always take a theme and examine it in another artistic environment.“

For Frozen they have asked local artists Stewart Cliff, Freya Pocklington, Ellen van de Graaf, Dianne Minnicucci, Jo Gifford and Rob Bidder to create artwork based on their reading of the play and the results are being exhibited in the theatre corridor.

"You see it as you go in, watch the play and then come out with it in your mind and see the work again and it makes you think about it in a different way," explains Mark.

Enfield Independent:

Red Riding by Ellen van de Graaf


To get in the right mindset for his role he has been reading The Murder of Childhood about Robert Black a serial killer, which Bryony drew on as inspiration for the character of Ralph.

“What he does is abhorrent, a horrible crime and there’s no justification for it and no reason you would have any sympathy for this character. But the way Bryony writes the play so cleverly, the reasons to why he might be the way he is are slowly unpeeled.

“And if you stop and take off your head that says ‘I hate this man’, you could start to understand why this whole cycle of abuse just keeps carrying on and on.“

He adds: “These people get demonised by the press – and we get that – but if we stopped and tried to do something about the cycle it might be more constructive.“

Park Theatre, Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, March 18 to April 19. Details: 020 7870 6876, parktheatre.co.uk