Like a child’s curiosity, the incessant asking of “why?”, our desire to understand motives behind actions we can’t comprehend is one of humanity’s driving forces and an essential foundation of good storytelling.
Prompted by the case of child murderer, eleven year old Mary Bell, and the murder of James Bulger by two ten year old boys (as well as the Eric Smith and Jeffrey Dahmer cases), Hilary Bell wrote this play in 1996 and it has been performed regularly ever since, in Australia and around the world.
It’s popularity no doubt due to this enduring question: Is evil an innate quality from birth, or is it the result of external influences? Nature vs nurture.
In a world of relentless terror, war, unspeakable injustices of humanity and murder, we are continually compelled to ask why people do these horrific things. When such a monstrous atrocity is committed by a child, it shakes us to the very core. The ‘innocence of youth’ becomes unravelled and we feel the need to blame. But what if it was your child? Would you feel culpable? Would you tell the truth? And is your truth the right truth to tell? Wolf Lullaby places our very selves and our morality under interrogation. Do we all have the wolf within us?
