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Review Round-up: Critics Call Tricycle to Account

“Urgent and compelling”, “partisan” and “dull” – the critics’ verdict is far from unanimous when it comes to Tricycle’s verbatim tribunal drama Called to Account, which opened last night (23 April 2007, previews from 19 April) at the north London theatre (See Today's 1st Night Photos).

Subtitled “The Indictment of Anthony Charles Lynton Blair for the Crime of Aggression Against Iraq”, Called to Account is directed by Nicolas Kent and sees prosecution and defense lawyers interrogate 11 key political figures, including MPs, diplomats, international lawyers, UN officials, intelligence experts and journalists, in a bid to indict Prime Minister Tony Blair for his involvement in the invasion of Iraq.

The play, which features a script edited by Guardian security affairs editor Richard Norton-Taylor, plays until 19 May at the Tricycle Theatre and follows earlier 'war on terror' investigations Guantanomo – Honor Bound to Defend Freedom and Justifying War, a dramatisation of the Hutton Inquiry into the death of government arms advisor Dr David Kelly.

Charles Spencer at the Daily Telegraph – “There is a literal sense of the theatre taking the law into its own hands … the Trike seems to be saying, since the Hutton and Butler inquiries failed to nail the PM we’ll do the job ourselves. As a result the piece seems worryingly partisan … The really brave and genuinely dramatic thing to do now would be to stage a play in favour of the war against Iraq … there is something wearisome about a play that merely seems to confirm its audience’s prejudices … Although I think many of us were gulled about the need for war, even this biased piece failed to convince me Blair deserves to go down for war crimes.”

- by Malcolm Rock

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