Theatre News

Tricycle Transfers The Riots to Tottenham in January

Following its acclaimed and Whatsonstage.com Award-nominated run at the Tricycle Theatre, Gillian Slovo’s The Riots will transfer to the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham from 4 to 14 January 2012.

Directed by outgoing artistic director Nicolas Kent, the production is based on a range of testimonies from those involved in the August riots, which originated in Tottenham following the police shooting of Mark Duggan.

John Baraldi, chief executive of Bernie Grant Arts Centre, said he was “overwhelmingly pleased” at news of the transfer. “For us, it is not only an important piece of theatre, but it also contributes to the process of a community trying to make sense of a huge tragedy which deeply wounded and confused it,” he added.

“We feel that Tottenham is the ideal location for such an important piece of theatre, which examines events that rocked not only Tottenham but England as a whole. This amazing new arts centre, named after Britain’s first black MP, is only a few hundred yards from where the troubles began, and it is therefore appropriate that Tottenham itself has the opportunity to contribute to the healing process which must now take place.”

From tweets by taxi drivers, to moment-by-moment accounts by riot
police, The Riots builds a “real-time picture of the riots as they unfolded”. Using interviews with politicians, police, teachers, lawyers,
community leaders, as well as victims and on-lookers, it analyses
what happened between the 6 and 10 August 2011 and why.

The cast comprises: Michele Austin, Sarah Ball, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Grant Burgin, Christopher Fox, Rupert Holliday Evans, Clementine Marlowe-Hunt, Okezie Morro, Cyril Nri, Tom Padley, Alan Parnaby, Selva Rasalingam, Steve Toussaint and Tim Woodward.

The production, which is nominated for Best Off-West End Production in the 2012 Whatsonstage.com Awards, continues at the Tricycle until tomorrow (10 December).