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Synopsis Justifying War will provide a public forum to debate the issues raised by the Inquiry. Within 24 hours of the tragic death of Dr David Kelly the Government set up a public inquiry and Lord Hutton (a senior Law Lord was appointed to conduct it. At the first public hearing on 1st August, Lord Hutton made it clear that his Inquiry will be wide-reaching, and that he intended to get to the truth behind the events that led to Dr Kelly's death. The Inquiry will call witnesses including Tony Blair; Geoff Hoon; Alastair Campbell; Andrew Gilligan; Gavyn Davies, Chairman of the BBC; civil servants from the MOD and 10 Downing Street, as well as Dr Kelly's widow and daughter. The length and scope of Lord Hutton's Inquiry is as yet uncertain, but it is inevitable that the Government's case for war against Iraq will come under heavy scrutiny. Despite a petition by Geoffrey Robertson QC (on behalf of ITN, ITV and Sky) to lift the ban on televising the proceedings of the Inquiry, the evidence of witnesses to the Inquiry will not be broadcast. Richard Norton Taylor and Nicolas Kent, the team behind the Tricycle's staging of Half the Picture - The Scott Arms to Iraq Inquiry, Nuremberg - The 1946 War Crimes Trial, Srebrenica - The Hague 1996 Rule 61 Hearings and The Colour of Justice - The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry (all later broadcast on the BBC) will now be collaborating on Justifying War. Nicolas Kent, Artistic Director of the Tricycle Theatre says....."The Tricycle has a long tradition of opening up a debate on the issues raised by public inquiries. We firmly believe that it is in the public interest that audiences should be given as impartial an overview as is possible of the proceedings of inquiries on such important issues as the Scott Arms to Iraq Inquiry and the Macpherson Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, and now the Hutton Inquiry. One of the main reasons cited by Geoffrey Robertson QC for allowing the broadcast media access to the Hutton Inquiry was that only through the Tricycle Theatre's edited reconstruction of the Macpherson and Scott Inquiries did the public get a chance to see a TV or radio version of the proceedings. The Tricycle stages these Inquiries precisely because they are not broadcast. We hope very soon to see the day when we no longer need to stage them, through the Government ensuring that all Public Inquiries are fully available to the public in all media."
It's not every day you see a play whose cast of characters includes Alastair Campbell, Geoff Hoon MP, Radio 4 'Today' programme journalist Andrew Gilligan and BBC Chairman Gavyn Davies. But then Justifying War isn't any play.
Those names, of course, were amongst the 75 witnesses who were called before Lord Hutton this summer in his inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the tragic death of government scientist Dr David Kelly, after he was exposed as the source of the BBC's news report that the dossier on "Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction" (suggesting that Saddam could launch an WMD attack within 45 minutes) was flawed.
The inquiry was not broadcast, but full transcripts of what was said, as well as documentary evidence that was shown, are available on an official website (www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk). But a quicker and easier way to digest some of the proceedings is now available in the latest of the Tricycle's brilliant Tribunal plays, as they're called, in which Guardian journalist Richard Norton-Taylor has edited the transcripts and Tricycle artistic director Nicolas Kent has staged them to make a theatrical evening that is as compelling as it is challenging.
Justifying War follows the pair's previous collaborations of putting on stage, amongst others, the Scott Arms to Iraq Inquiry and the Stephen Lawrence one, The Colour of Justice, which was subsequently seen at the National Theatre and in the West End. Justifying War has an even more dramatic immediacy, as Lord Hutton hasn't even published his resulting report yet, and his inquiry only officially ended as recently as 13 October.
The new piece also combines the deeply political and the intensely personal in profound and moving ways because, apart from revealing the machinations of government and its relationship with the BBC, at the heart of it is the story of a respected scientist whose life quickly unravelled in the maelstrom.
Opening, as the inquiry did, with the audience standing for a minute's silence in Kelly's memory, and closing with the heartbreaking testimony of his widow (who is heard but not seen), Justifying War makes for a gripping drama, all the more painful and shocking for being drawn entirely from actual spoken words.
All is vividly brought to life by a superb ensemble of actors who bury themselves so selflessly within the real-life characters they're playing that their efforts transcend mere impersonation or performance to indeed feel utterly true-to-life. Kent's production, with the stage and auditorium surrounded by plasma screens onto which the evidence is projected, adds to the pervasive realism with the lavish casting of five silent court officials.
This is riveting. The transcripts of the Hutton inquiry have been edited down to 2 hours (in an apparently balanced way) and you hang on every word, it's fascinating. The acting is magnificently naturalistic - watch out for a tour de force by the actor playing Mackinlay, who chaired the Select Committee, and is uncomfortably out of control and deeply sympathetic all at the same time. And to be able to see the original emails and memos on plasma screens feels like open government for once (albeit ex post facto) - though I'd recommend sitting towards the right of the auditorium to be able to see the screens easily. Did it tell me much I didn't know? - not really. Was it great theatre? - yes. - USER: Whatsonstage.com (82.35.62.168)
Film information line 020 7328 1900. Society of London Theatre member. The theatre has a cafe - La Brunelloise Traiteur - serving pre theatre snacks and meals from £2-£6.
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