''Amongst Barbarians'' is a 1989 play by British playwright Michael Wall, first performed at the

Royal Exchange Theatre The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on the land bounded by St Ann's Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street. The complex includes the Royal ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

prior to a transfer to the

Hampstead Theatre Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in South Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. Roxana Silbert has been the artistic director since ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. It was filmed as a made-for-TV movie in 1990, which was shown as part of series five of the BBC drama anthology series, '' ScreenPlay''. It was directed by

Jane Howell Jane Howell (15 Aug 1935) is an English theatre and television director. She is known for directing six television plays of the BBC Television Shakespeare series in the 1980s: ''The Winter's Tale'' (1981), ''Henry VI, Part 1'' (1983), ''Henry VI ...

and starred

David Jason Sir David John White (born 2 February 1940), known professionally by his stage name David Jason, is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Derek "Del Boy" Trotter in the BBC sitcom '' Only Fools and Horses'', Detective Inspector ...

, Anne Carroll,

Rowena Cooper Rosemary Rowena Cooper (born 1935) is a British actress. She began her career in 1956, joining the Radio Drama Company by winning the Carlton Hobbs Bursary. In 1959 she joined the Dundee Repertory Theatre Company and went on to have an exten ...

, Con O'Neill and Lee Ross. ''Amongst Barbarians'' is set far away from

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

's Britain in Penang,

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

, a former British colony, where two young Englishmen have been arrested for drug trafficking. As they both face the death penalty, their relatives travel to Penang to come to their rescue. However, they soon find out that there is nothing they can do to save the boys' lives. In the course of their futile attempts at influencing the authorities, their

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...

becomes more than apparent. The question which is never made explicit is of course who the real barbarians are. Wall's play is based on the true story of the

Barlow and Chambers execution The Barlow and Chambers executions were the hangings on 7 July 1986 by Malaysia of two Westerners, Kevin John Barlow (Australian and British) and Brian Geoffrey Shergold Chambers (Australian) of Perth, Western Australia, for transporting 14 ...

References

1989 plays 1990 television films 1990 films BBC Television shows British television films Plays by Michael Wall Plays set in Malaysia Films set in Malaysia ScreenPlay {{UK-tv-film-stub