One minute a man is calmly pacing up and down a Tube platform, waiting for his train like all the other passengers.
But the next moment he has jumped onto the track and under the wheels of the fast-approaching train – and there’s nothing anyone can do but watch in horror.
It’s a tragedy for all concerned, not least the train driver who has to try to come to terms with the traumatic death.
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That’s what interested writer Stephanie Ridings when she set about creating the new play Unknown Male, which receives its premiere at Birmingham Rep next week.
Stephanie says: “I didn’t want to write a play about why someone takes their own life. I was more interested in the effect it has on those who are implicated, especially if they are nothing to do with them.
“I started doing research and realised it has a real impact on the train drivers, some of whom never get back in the cab.
“Unknown Male came about after I watched a documentary about the London Underground, which featured a ‘one under’.
“What really got to me wasn’t seeing the footage of the man pacing the platform moments before he jumped, or seeing his shoe abandoned on the track. It was when they opened his wallet to identify him and saw it brimming with bank cards and receipts.
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“That made him very human and it really bothered me.
“I wanted to explore the ripple effect that such a suicide causes.
“Is it a selfish thing to do? When there’s been a ‘one under’ on the Tube, the outpouring on Twitter is not very pleasant, as it’s all about how that death has inconvenienced hundreds of others.
“Then there’s the effect on the driver. If you are driving a car you can swerve if you see someone in the road, but there’s nothing a train driver can do except put on the brakes and wait, and it takes so long for a train to stop.
“Many look down so they don’t see what happens.
“But sometimes it happens so quickly, there’s no action to be taken. Tube trains come into stations at quite a speed and they often approach on a bend so the drivers can’t see.
“Whenever I use the Tube, I always make sure I stand at the far end of the platform, as far away from where someone might jump, because I don’t want to witness anything.
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“I’m aware this all sounds quite depressing, but the play really isn’t. It’s about how real people cope with these things, and it’s about hope and keeping a sense of humour.”
The play stars Lorraine Stanley as the train driver Heather, Birmingham actor Ged Simmons as her partner Mark and Phoebe-Frances Brown as her daughter Emily, who is in the middle of her GCSEs.
Stephanie, 37, is originally from Blackpool and now lives in Kenilworth – “we don’t even have a train station, we have to go to Coventry!” – with her partner who works at Warwick Arts Centre.
Unknown Male is her second play and was created with help from the Rep Foundry.
Stephanie was part of the Rep’s first Foundry artist development programme, an initiative started by artistic director Roxana Silbert in 2013 to discover and nurture local writers and directors.
Her first play was called Me, Mum and Dusty Springfield, which was staged at the Edinburgh Festival and did a tour of Midland theatres.
She starred in the one-woman comedy, reflecting on the relationship with her mother and sprinkling a few of Dusty’s lyrics into the script.
But for Unknown Male, Stephanie takes a back seat and does not appear on stage.
“I wasn’t tempted to be in this at all,” she says. “I’ve reached the point where my enjoyment comes from writing and I don’t get the same satisfaction from performing as I used to.
“It doesn’t interest me, but writing does. The Rep Foundry has been instrumental in helping my writing. I was new to the area when I joined the programme so it was a massive help, letting me make friends and supporting my work.
“I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
Stephanie’s next subject for a play is equally as hard-hitting and interesting.
“I’ve started to research the British women who marry men on death row in Texas. I have no idea why they might do that, but it happens quite a lot.”
Unknown Male runs at Birmingham Rep from January 28-31. For tickets ring 0121 236 4455 or go to birmingham-rep.co.uk.