Pack of lies

Hugh Whitemore's 1983 play PACK OF LIES is a sensitive study in how repeated lying can undermine even the closest of friendships. Whitemore dramatizes the true story of Bill and Ruth Search, who in 1960 began to allow their home in Ruislip, England to be the location from which members of MI5 (the British intelligence agency similar to the United States' FBI) monitored the home of the Searches' good friends, Morris and Lona Cohen, whom MI5 suspected of passing on secrets to the Soviet Union. In PACK OF LIES, the Searches become the Jacksons and the Cohens the Krogers (their alias in real life, as well). A pivotal figure in the play is Mr. Stewart, the MI5 "civil servant" who visits the Jacksons and persuades them to shelter two police girls, Thelma and Sally, in their home so that they may watch the homes of their neighbors - the Krogers' house in particular. From this point the MI5 agents increasingly invade the Jackson household; meanwhile, the ordeal of cooperating with them while lying to the Krogers begins to take an emotional and physical toll on the sensitive Barbara Jackson (Ruth Search). On beginning PACK OF LIES for the first time, one might think it simply mundane, "kitchen-sink" realism. But, starting with the introduction of Mr. Stewart, one is increasingly drawn into the mystery of who the Krogers really are and begins to ask questions such as the following: Whose power is greater, the individual's or the state's? Can an individual be "a criminal" but still have admirable qualities? How does guilt affect a person? Finally, one sees that the purpose of the play's initial scenes is to establish the close friendship between Barbara Jackson and Helen Kroger - a friendship that is ultimately destroyed by lies. I recently saw a superb local production of PACK OF LIES and am glad to have discovered this great play.