Review Theatre: Stockwell | Tricycle Theatre | Jean Charles de Menezes | suicide bombers | inquest | July 7 bombings | SFO | C12

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The Review - THEATRE by TOM FOOT
Published: 17 September 2009

Stockwell at the Tricycle Theatre

Gripping look back at de Menezes tragedy

STOCKWELL
Tricycle Theatre

I LEFT the Tricycle on Monday a jittery mess, as if I had drunk a pint’s worth of espresso while watching this unimaginable injustice unravel.
Stockwell, the latest offering from the theatre’s acclaimed “tribunal” series, succinctly abridges witness evidence from the Jean Charles de Menezes inquest into a fly-by 90 minutes.
Unlike the Tricycle’s courtroom-style probes this piece of verbatim theatre builds to a powerful conclusion.
It packs a considerable dramatic punch.
The fatal errors from the police chiefs are retold in seemingly real time as the surveillance team fight “a race against time” and an innocent man wanders unwittingly to his death.
Despite the damning inquest into the fatal communication breakdown, the Met is not crucified in this balanced production. We are reminded of unprecedented levels of fear of suicide bombers, stoked by the bombings on July 7 and the attempt on July 20, also at Stockwell, the day before.
The stand-out scene is when the coroner uses the head of the Specialist Firearms Officer (SFO) to show where and with what effect the nine bullets passed through Mr de Menezes’ head and neck. The officer “C12” (Alex Tanner) – the characters are not named for aesthetic reasons – quakes and quivers like a schoolchild who does not want to be seen crying in public, until he is undone by the weight of emotion.
If the production points a finger it is at the woeful communication between Commander Cressida Dick (Helen Worsley) and her teams on the ground.
The witness evidence is picked apart by the QC, Mike Mansfield (Jack Klaff).
Flabbergasted and incredulous, he provides the moral compass of the play, serving as a vehicle for the producers to pass comment on the proceedings.
Until September 20
020 7328 1000

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GREAT review - I will definitely go to see the show. I have heard from other people who have been to see the show that Katharine Gwen Pons is a real find and a name to watch out for.
S. Allen

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