East Midlands-based screenwriter Laura Turner gives voices to those who suffer from abusive relationships. With her recent film Lapwing, Laura aids us with a magnificent period piece that highlights the rather underrepresented topics of emotional, physical, and verbal abusive partnerships. Laura makes it her mission to dismantle stigmas around the conversation of abuse and, of course, uses her love of screenwriting to push harrowing stories like Lapwing to the forefront of media. Laura and Lapwing's story is empowering, and Jejune is so excited to share them both! We highly encourage you to check out Lapwing. The film's streaming link can be found at the end of this interview! Please enjoy! And if you are intrigued by Laura's screenwriting talents, her work with domestic abuse victims and organizations, and her upcoming projects, please continue reading below!

Where are you based?
I’m based in Lincoln in the East Midlands, which is where I grew up and moved back to as an adult.

When did you realize play and screenwriting were something for you?
At a really early age actually. I had always loved writing and reading, and going to the theatre and cinema when I was young was a hugely informative experience for me. Stories have always been important to me, but it wasn’t until I went to university that I started to imagine that could be an actual career possibility. Before, it felt like something that could be a hobby, but I didn’t know how I could turn that into a life choice. But, I decided that because I felt so passionate about writing, I had to give it a try and so I allowed myself a year to start out as a playwright and see what happened. I spent that year applying for opportunities, doing writing courses and writing as much as possible. When it went well, I did another year, and another, and just kept going from there!

What was the first piece you wrote? How have you grown so far?
The first play I wrote was actually called ‘I Love Christmas’ and was a play for young people, which was the kind of work I spent a lot of my early career doing. I love writing for children and family audiences as it’s a lot of fun and you can be so playful and interactive with the storytelling. But, as I wrote more and more for the stage, I started to feel drawn in new directions, to explore darker and more adult stories and themes. This led me to want to write for the screen as well as the stage. For me, I find it really exciting how focused you can be when you write for the screen — you can really direct the audience’s gaze to a particular moment or image, in a way you just can’t with playwriting, where it’s about the bigger picture. Screenwriting is a much more intimate medium, and I love that you can tell such personal stories.

Congratulations! Your latest and first-ever feature film, Lapwing, was released last year. Can you tell us a bit about the movie?
Thank you so much! It’s been a really exciting time. Lapwing is the story of a young mute woman living in England in 1555 and her journey towards independence and finding her voice. Patience, the main character, lives on the isolated Lincolnshire coast in a small community of salt farmers, led by her brother-in-law, David. He is a proud, dangerous and violent man who wants to keep Patience silent and oppressed. But when she meets a young Gyptian man fleeing the country for his safety, they connect in a way Patience has never experienced before. This opens her eyes up to the bigger picture of the world, and what her life could be if she is brave enough.

The film is indeed excellent! Can you tell us about the purpose of setting the movie in 1555? Have you always wanted to write a period piece?
That means so much to me — thank you! Yes, I’ve always been obsessed with history, and period dramas were the main thing I watched when I was growing up. A lot of my early work for the stage was also in adapting classic novels for theatre, so I’ve always been really interested in how we can make stories about the past relevant to today. With Lapwing, and other historical work I’ve done, I think there’s a real opportunity to tell a very poignant story about the present through the lens of the past. Setting the story historically means, I hope, that audiences truly go on an imaginative journey with the characters, to experience life as it was for them. I hope that this in turn means that the message and themes of the piece become all the more powerful because the audience feels so closely linked to the characters, world and setting.

The film covers the female experience of emotional and coercive control in relationships. What message did you want to portray to your audience?
The film definitely deals with dark and difficult topics and themes, but the overriding message I wanted to convey with the film was one of hope and resilience, even in the most difficult and painful of times. I believe that human beings have such a huge ability to keep going — to be courageous and strong in the face of awful things — and I wanted to draw on this in the story to show how Patience goes on a journey towards selfhood that enables her to find her power and assert her voice.

What is your preferred genre?
I love working within the thriller genre, as I think it gives so much potential to really push the narrative and explore interesting character dynamics. Drama is inherent in everything we do, so I think genre can then be really useful to hone that and put a particular lens on the drama that reveals all the tensions sitting underneath the story and the characters.

Do you feel emotional, physical, and verbal abuse topics are underrepresented in society?
I really do. I think it’s improved amazingly in the last few years, but I think there’s still a long way to go to really open up a frank and honest conversation about these areas, and to find a safe space for people to express themselves when they’re talking about those topics. It’s always going to be difficult, but I think for me as a writer, I’ve really realized in the last few years that the reason I write is to try and reach out to people, especially those who might have experienced something that I have, and to find an affinity there. I think that’s the real power of creativity, that we can find spaces to join together and find kinship despite the physical boundaries that might separate us from each other.

Why do you think the media ignores such issues?
I think issues like these are so prevalent actually, that to start to unpack them is, for the media, terrifying, because it means dismantling so much of what we have spent so long establishing as “important” in society. Power structures and hierarchy have always been problematic areas of society, and I think hidden themes like abuse and coercive control in relationships often hide in plain sight. It is scary to open yourself up and make yourself vulnerable as well. It’s a very exposing experience to talk about things that have affected you — but that brings me back again to the importance of creating safe, creative spaces where we can start to do this.

The protagonist’s name is “Patience.” Was this a deliberate choice, is it symbolic?
Absolutely, there’s so much that is metaphorical in the film. Patience’s name is so representative of her inner strength. She has that resilience; she doesn’t feel the need to act erratically. She can wait, and she will wait until she is certain before she does anything. The fact that she has a stutter and has been mute for so much of her life has taught her incredible skills in this way, and that really becomes the crux of the story as the other characters realize the power this woman has — this person who they dismissed as weak.

What was the process of creating this film? How did you craft and execute this narrative?
It was a long process. The film originally started out as a concept for a short film, rather than a feature film, but myself and the director Philip Stevens quickly realized it had a lot of potential that would be missed if we made it in short form. So I began the long process of research and story development to expand ten minutes of screen-time into 90 for the feature film. I’m so grateful that I did that though, and especially that I had the support and encouragement of Phil and the rest of our amazing creative team. I don’t think I could have explored a story like this in as much difficult detail if I hadn’t felt so safe and supported.

What was it like to have your film premiered at the Leeds International Film Festival? What were the emotions?
It’s been an amazing experience to start sharing the film with people, and to have the opportunity to talk to audiences about their feelings and reactions after watching it, has been particularly special. I always hoped that this story would transcend its setting to speak to people of all ages and in different places, and it’s been wonderful to see that start to come to fruition. It is scary at times, especially at the start, but I feel so proud of what we have created. I think you have to believe in yourself and trust that you have done the best job that you can do with whatever work you make. Comparison only leads you down really difficult and dangerous paths.

This engaging film was no doubt raw and emotional acting. Did you have a vision for who would fill Patience’s shoes, along with the other actors?
I knew who Patience was as soon as I started writing her. I had worked with Hannah Douglas, who plays Patience, previously when she acted in several stage plays I had written, directed by Phil Stevens (the director). We had a shorthand already, and seeing the way Hannah works and the subtlety of performance, facial expression and body language she brings to every role, I knew that she was perfect for Patience. She has a real inner strength as an actress and as a woman, which shines out through her eyes, and is never crushed, which was exactly what we needed for Patience.

Do you have any words of wisdom regarding survivors of abuse within a relationship?
I think it’s so hard because it’s such a different journey for every person. I believe now in communication and honesty around the things that are difficult for us in our lives, but I also completely respect that that’s not for everyone. I think the most important thing is to listen to yourself and what you need when you’ve been through difficult times. Everyone needs something different, but it’s easy in our busy lives to get caught up in rights, wrongs and shoulds. I think as much as we can, we need to forget the noise outside and look inside.

We love that you spread awareness for topics that are not talked about enough in the media! Would any upcoming projects have the recurring theme of emotional/physical/verbal abuse advocacy?
I’m really passionate about this in all my work and I’m actually developing a new project now with my theatre company, Fury Theatre, that deals with the themes of domestic abuse in relationships, both physical, verbal and emotional. The play is called Abigail and is a fictionalized story of Abigail Williams, a real young woman who was involved in the Salem Witch Trials. The play asks what happened to her after history used and abused her, and the history books forgot about her. But she, as a vulnerable young woman, was left bereft and confused after the brief flash of fame and power she was granted, before it was snatched away by a world that quickly wanted to silence her again. The play asks how that young woman can find her voice again, on her own terms.

How did your experience with abuse affect how you went about in the world?
I think everyone deals with the experiences life has provided them with in different ways, and for me, channeling my experiences into my creative work has always been the focus. It’s different for everyone, but writing poetry has been a particularly powerful resource for me. Putting words on the page at times when you feel disempowered - by the world, or even just within yourself - can really change the narrative you find yourself within, and help to get a new perspective. I think it’s important to acknowledge what we experience, but also to help ourselves look forward.

Can you tell us a bit about your work with local charities for female domestic abuse victims? What role do you play within that community?
Developing Abigail with Fury Theatre, we’ve just started working with a local domestic abuse charity to explore the issues, themes and topics of the play with the voices of women who have experienced these issues. This is something that for me has to work both ways — it’s not about consuming the experience of these women, but about giving them a safe space to express themselves, and hopefully using some creative strategies to give them some positive tools. Then, if they are happy for their stories to feed into our work, that’s amazing, but there’s never any expectation. It’s just about people coming together to ask difficult questions together.

Do you have any upcoming projects fans can look forward to?
I’m currently working on the next feature film with the team behind Lapwing, which will explore the concept of vengeance and female fury in the face of mistreatment towards women and nature. Abigail, the play I am co-writing with director Stephen Gillard for Fury Theatre, will also be premiering in London in May, so I’m really excited to bring that to the stage and share that story.

The pandemic did a number on mental health. How were you affected? How are you coping? Are things back to normal for you?
It’s been such a strange and intense time, and I think what we have to be really mindful of as well is the fact that it’s actually really difficult to come out the other side of a pandemic, as well as the time when you’re in lockdown. Coming out the other side has definitely had its challenges for me, adjusting back to a new normal, that’s still not quite normal, and with the remaining anxiety and uncertainty that this time of change has left us all with. I think we have to be kind to ourselves still at the moment, but that’s sometimes the hardest thing to do! At the moment I’m trying to balance being creative when I have the energy and drive for it, and listening to my body when I don’t. But it’s so hard to silence the voices in your head that are just programmed to make us feel guilty for what we do, and what we don’t do.

Do you have any advice for anyone struggling with mental health or abuse in this new wave of the pandemic?
It’s difficult because it’s so easy to say, but I think communication is always the key with anything. Everything is so much worse when we bury it or internalize it, and I know for me, speaking out about what I’m feeling is scary, but ultimately the only way to claim agency over the things affecting you. That can be personally, on a really small scale, or it can be in a different way, perhaps channeling that through creative work. That’s always been an important route for me, and giving myself space to be creative mindfully as well — not always focusing on the end outcome or goal of something, but just enjoying it and being in the moment.

What is your life motto?
Definitely that — being in the moment. It’s something it took me a long time to realize — just how important and empowering that can be — and it’s definitely something that’s really hard to get into the habit of. But I think if you just keep making choices that feel right in the moment, without too much overthinking forwards or backwards, that can help us get in touch with our gut response to situations. And I’ve definitely learned over the years that we should definitely always listen to that.

Please stay up to date with Laura on the following platform(s):
Instagram: @ljzturner @furytheatre
Twitter: @ljzturner @theatrefury
Stream Lapwing: https://tickets.bulldog-film.com/movies/13252?ref=
Abigail at The Space: https://space.org.uk/event/abigail/

Laura Turner: The Underrepresentation Of Abuse