The Riots

Synopsis

From tweets by taxi drivers, to moment-by-moment accounts by riot police, it will build a real-time picture of the riots as they unfolded. And then, from interviews with politicians, police, teachers, lawyers, community leaders, as well as victims and on-lookers, The Riots will analyse what happened, why it happened, and what we should do towards making a better future for ourselves and our city. Astonishing stories and equally astonishing conclusions told by the many voices that have been stirred up by the riots.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 23 November 2011

When the summer riots spread to Hackney, the cry went up, “Don’t touch the Empire!” The theatre was seen as a place of good work and community value by the very people who were vandalising property and looting the shops outside.

This is one of many valuable nuggets in The Riots, a skilful verbatim documentary compiled by Gillian Slovo from spoken evidence; she made direct contact with rioters, police officers, community workers and local politicians, including Diane Abbott, Michael Gove, Simon Hughes and Iain Duncan Smith.

If there were a few more “Empires” in Tottenham, Wood Green and Brixton the trouble may have been averted, or at least contained: Slovo’s work, and the informative and detailed Tricycle programme, amounts, in effect, to the enquiry into the events of last August that the coalition government, astonishingly, refuses to authorise.

Is it theatre? Up to a point, though it’s not what you&...

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