Catch Me Who Can

Catch Me Who Can

This audio drama adaptation of Shelagh Delaney's play follows a tense encounter in a park between a teacher, Mr. Halliwell, and his runaway stud

Key takeaways

Hattie's disappearance caused extreme distress to her parents, who feared she had been abducted or murdered.
The teacher, Mr. Halliwell, views Hattie's running away as a lack of self-control rather than a pursuit of freedom.
A discussion on anarchy defines it as both a state of social order through manners and a chaotic resistance to law.
Hattie references the themes of 'Animal Farm' to illustrate how good intentions can be twisted into oppressive systems.
The encounter with a bike rider introduces themes of social protest and the disruption caused by strikes.

Main topics

Adolescent rebellion
Teacher-student dynamics
Anarchy vs. Social Order

Notable quotes

I'm not interested in rights.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a poignant exploration of the tension between in

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:34) Gotcha! Get off of me! Speaker 1 (0:37) Not Speaker 2 (0:37) likely! Now I've caught you, I'm hanging on! Stop struggling! I'll scream! Scream all you like! He's no right to touch me! The Speaker 4 (0:44) police Speaker 2 (0:45) are Speaker 4 (0:45) looking for you! Get Speaker 2 (0:46) off! Now! Why are the police looking for me? Your Speaker 4 (0:49) parents Speaker 2 (0:50) are out of their minds with worry! I'm taking you home! No, let me go! No! Help! Shut up! You've no rights over... I'm not interested in Speaker 4 (0:58) rights. You start moving. We're Speaker 2 (1:00) not in school now. If you Speaker 4 (1:02) don't start walking, I'll pick you up and carry you home. Speaker 2 (1:06) I give up. Speaker 4 (1:08) Get up. Use your legs. I thought you were going to carry me, sir. If you didn't want me to see you, why did you start following me? I thought you were going to have Speaker 2 (1:17) a heart attack. Why Speaker 4 (1:18) should you worry whether I have a heart attack or not? Speaker 2 (1:21) I'm just very kind-hearted, I suppose. Speaker 4 (1:23) That's hard to believe, in view of the way you're treating your parents. Speaker 2 (1:28) Your mother's demented. I was surprised to see you jogging around the park. I didn't know you were a fitness fanatic. You don't look like one. Speaker 4 (1:36) Oi, oi! Try getting away, Hattie. Your little game is up. Speaker 2 (1:42) Just let go of me, sir. Speaker 4 (1:44) All right. There you go. Speaker 2 (1:47) You've really hurt me. And you don't look strong. Speaker 4 (1:50) I don't think so, Hattie. You're dramatising. You've got very sharp teeth. Speaker 2 (1:57) You have hurt me. You don't know your own strength. Speaker 4 (2:00) What possessed you to take off and disappear from home the way you did? Speaker 2 (2:05) I don't know. Speaker 4 (2:06) Was it just an impulse or did you plan it? Speaker 2 (2:08) I didn't plan it. I was on my way to school that day when all of a sudden I couldn't face it. So I bunked off. And then I knew how upset they'd be that I bunked off again after promising I wouldn't do it anymore. And one thing led to another. You know how it is. Speaker 4 (2:23) No. I don't know how it is. I can understand if you have horrible parents, but you don't. You're not frightened of them. Speaker 2 (2:33) Oh, drop it. Speaker 4 (2:35) How have you been fending for yourself since you ran away? Your mother says you took nothing except your train fare and dinner money. Speaker 2 (2:42) Well, I wasn't planning on being away so long. Have you been begging? Speaker 4 (2:49) Rooting in bins like her over there? Speaker 2 (2:53) No. Speaker 4 (2:54) For someone who's supposedly been living rough, you seem in remarkably good nick. I suppose your friends have been Speaker 1 (3:01) looking after you. Yes. And Speaker 4 (3:04) every single one of them has sworn blind to your parents and to the police that they haven't seen you for days. No knowledge of your whereabouts whatsoever. It's bloody marvellous the way you all stick together. Speaker 2 (3:17) Wouldn't you expect your friends to do the same for you? Speaker 4 (3:21) Er, well... I suppose it does demonstrate a certain kind of misplaced loyalty. Speaker 2 (3:28) Why misplaced? Because they've been loyal to me and not to my parents. They're my friends. All right. Speaker 4 (3:34) Get agitated. I was at your house last night, Hattie. Your parents are in a terrible state. They think you've been abducted and murdered. It's the only reason they can think of that makes sense to them. You've never disappeared from home before. Speaker 4 (3:56) You can imagine how they feel, can't you? Speaker 2 (3:59) Yes. Speaker 4 (4:00) Then let's go back and put their minds at rest. You made your mother really ill. Speaker 2 (4:05) I didn't mean to. Speaker 4 (4:07) Now's your chance to put things right, and the sooner the better. Come on. Speaker 2 (4:12) Stop telling me what to do. We're not in school. Speaker 4 (4:15) I've no intention of letting you out of my sight. Your behaviour's been appalling. Speaker 2 (4:22) I know, but I can't help it. Speaker 4 (4:25) You're going to have to learn to help it, young lady. You're going to have to learn self-control. You're going to have to learn that you can't give in to every whim and impulse. Speaker 2 (4:35) Do you never give in to your whims and impulses? If we all Speaker 4 (4:38) did exactly what we want to do, the world would be chaotic. The Speaker 1 (4:43) world isn't chaotic enough. Huh? She made me jump. We have to embrace it. That's the ticket. Nothing wrong with whims and impulses. Embrace what? Speaker 4 (4:56) Don't encourage her. No. Speaker 1 (4:59) Thy dread empire, chaos, is restored. Thy hand, great Anarch, let the curtain fall and universal darkness buries all. Oh, Speaker 4 (5:09) we've got an anarchist amongst us? Speaker 1 (5:11) What's an anarchist, sir? Oh, yes, Speaker 2 (5:14) sir. Speaker 1 (5:14) What's an anarchist, sir? Speaker 4 (5:17) Er, at its best, anarchy stands for a society made orderly by good manners rather than by law. At its worst, it stands for terroristic resistance to all forms of government and social order. In its broadest sense, it means absolute freedom from all law, moral as well as economic and political. Speaker 2 (5:43) Can I ask a silly question? Speaker 4 (5:46) Sounds all right in theory. In practice, it was a different story. Speaker 2 (5:50) Yeah, I suppose so. I've noticed that's usually the case. All the good ideas seem to get twisted. Like the pigs in Animal Farm. Speaker 4 (5:59) The Speaker 2 (5:59) creatures looked outside from pigs to man and from man to pigs and from pigs to man again. But it was already impossible to say which was which. Speaker 4 (6:09) Pigs or people. It's a sad fact that the principle of live and let live sooner or later turns into do as you're told or else. Speaker 2 (6:18) Don't you like being told what to do either, sir? Who does? I know people who love being told what to do. If they weren't told what to do, they wouldn't know what to do. Speaker 4 (6:29) Oh, I know a few like that. It's a terrible thing when people are brought up not to think for themselves. Speaker 2 (6:36) Sometimes when you've been brought up to think for yourself and you start doing it, people don't like it. Speaker 4 (6:43) Have you been having a lot of fun since you ran away from home? Speaker 2 (6:48) I know it will sound an awful thing to say, sir, but I have been having fun. Speaker 4 (6:53) That'll be comforting to your parents. Speaker 2 (6:55) No need to be sarcastic. Speaker 4 (6:57) You've really surprised me, Hattie. The way you've taken off and just abandoned everything. I can't understand it. You always seem more mature than the other girls. Speaker 2 (7:10) Did you never play truant or run away from home when you were young, sir? Speaker 4 (7:16) No. Speaker 2 (7:16) Not even for a laugh? Speaker 4 (7:18) No. Speaker 2 (7:20) I don't understand that. My mother played truant and my grandmother played truant. You Speaker 4 (7:25) trying to tell me that truancy's hereditary? Speaker 2 (7:27) Well, I haven't played truant all my life, sir. I've only been doing it since I was 13. Were you never curious to do something just to find out what it felt like? Speaker 4 (7:36) Er, not in