Who is the girl in the Box? The girl whose mother never named her; and whose father had one name for her: Doll.

SYNOPSIS:

This is a play that I have also adapted as a short film script.

Box is a script for a symbolic film about warped family relationships. It tells the story of the unnamed daughter of Carey and Martin, given the creepy nickname “Doll” by her step-father. Doll sits in a cardboard packing box which is part of the furniture of a normal looking living-room.

At first we think that Doll may be hiding as part of a game, but it quickly becomes apparent that she lives inside the box. The rest of the play looks at why this is. We learn that Carey knows that she can’t have children with Martin as he is infertile; this also reveals that Doll is the illegitimate daughter of Carey, which is maybe why Carey has kept her hidden in the box. However by the end of the film we become aware that Martin has known all along that Doll lives in the box, and that he has even been abusing his wife’s daughter.

Throughout the play we see Carey put up with abusive behaviour by Martin towards herself, but when she learns that Doll is being physically abused she decides, perhaps as means of escape from her whole life, to phone the police and report Martin.

BOX