Tribunal Plays
The Tricycle has established a unique reputation for responding to contemporary issues and events with its ground-breaking 'tribunal plays' based on verbatim reconstructions of public inquiries and for its political work.
In 1994 the Tricycle produced Half the Picture by Richard Norton-Taylor and John McGrath (a dramatisation of the Scott Arms to Iraq Inquiry), which was the first play ever to be performed in the Houses of Parliament. This was the first of a series of plays that have subsequently become known as the Tricycle Tribunal Plays. The next, marking the 50th anniversary of the 1946 War Crimes Tribunal, was Nuremberg, which was followed by Srebrenica – the UN Rule 61 Hearings, which later transferred to the National Theatre and the Belfast Festival at Queen's.
In 1999, the Tricycle’s reconstruction of The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry - The Colour of Justice received tremendous critical and public acclaim went on to play for two weeks at Theatre Royal, Stratford East and transferred to the Victoria Palace in the West End. It completed a national tour in 1999 which included Belfast and the National Theatre.
In 2003 JUSTIFYING WAR – Scenes from the Hutton Inquiry opened at the Tricycle.
In 2004 the Tricycle produced Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom written by Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo from spoken evidence, which transferred to the New Ambassadors Theatre in the West End and the Culture Project in New York (where Archbishop Desmond Tutu appeared in the production). In 2006 the Tricycle presented a performance of the play at the Houses of Parliament and also on Washington’s Capitol Hill. It has since been performed around the world and in the US through the ‘Guantanamo Reading Project’, which develops community productions of readings of the play. Twenty-five of these have already been held in cities across America.
Bloody Sunday: Scenes from the Saville Inquiry opened in 2005 and later transferred to Belfast, Derry and to the Abbey Theatre for the Dublin Theatre Festival. In 2006 the theatre was awarded an Evening Standard Special Drama Award for "pioneering political work", and a Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement for Bloody Sunday.
In 2007 'Called to Account - the indictment of Tony Blair for the crime of aggression against Iraq - a hearing' was staged at the Tricycle with evidence from Richard Perle, the Chilean Ambassador to the U.N. and ex- Cabinet Minister Clare Short. All of these plays have been broadcast by the BBC on radio or television, and have together reached audiences of over 30 million people worldwide.
Read more about this topic: Tricycle Theatre, Productions
Famous quotes containing the words tribunal and/or plays:
“There’s a new tribunal now
Higher than God’s—the educated man’s!”
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)
“Better to be despised and have a servant, than to be self-important and lack food.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Proverbs 12:9.
RSV translation reads, “Better is a man of humble standing who works for himself than one who plays the great man but lacks bread.”