Breaking the Code

Hugh Whitemore’s biographical play tells the story of Alan Turing, a British mathematician who played a key role in cracking the German Enigma code during World War Two and developed early theories in computer science. However, despite his giant intellect, he was also a man who became trapped by his inability to lie. Moving back and forwards in time, the action is framed around a life-changing police interview in which Turing reports a burglary at his home, only to incriminate himself with the admission that he had been having an affair with the man who robbed him. In an era when homosexuality was against the law, Turing’s admission became his downfall. Sentenced to body-altering hormone therapy, Turing’s reputation is in tatters and his past glory is now perceived as a threat to national security. Caught in a problem that even he cannot solve, Turing ends his life and finally breaks his own code.