Theatre can be an
\nextension of journalism, a wonderful platform to explain, warn, make a case,
\nwith the added stimulus of live performances and live audiences.<\/p>\n
These two short, powerful,
\nand important, plays are built around fictional episodes but to drive the point
\nhome that they are embedded in fact. Both are introduced by verbatim extracts
\nfrom an interview with Clive Stafford Smith, founder of the human rights group,
\nReprieve. <\/p>\n
The overall title of
\nthe double bill is taken from a quote from former US defence secretary, Robert
\nGates. We have entered the \u2018drone age\u2019 says Stafford Smith, who makes the point
\nthat the British government, as well as the US government, has drawn up a \u2018kill
\nlist\u2019 of targets for drone strikes. In Washington, they have been decided at
\nweekly Tuesday meetings in the White House. <\/p>\n
Both plays mix the
\npersonal and the professional \u2013 the tension between personal relationships and responsibility
\nfor pressing a button that will unleash a weapon on the drone thousands of
\nmiles away, between bravado and bathos. <\/p>\n
In the first play, This Tuesday<\/em>, by Ron Hutchinson and the The direction by Both pieces are set in Theatre can be an extension of journalism, a wonderful platform to explain, warn, make a case, with the added stimulus of live performances and live audiences. These two short, powerful, and important, plays are built around fictional episodes but to drive the point home that they are embedded in fact. Both are introduced by verbatim…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\njournalist, Christina Lamb, a CIA operator watches over her daughter badly
\ninjured in a car crash as she argues with a colleague concerned about the
\nlegality of drone strikes. The second play, The
\nKid<\/em>, is written by David Greig. He engages you with increasingly engrossing
\ndialogue as the characters meet to celebrate a personal event and an apparently
\nsuccessful drone strike. It ends with a searing intervention by the newly
\npregnant partner of a drone operator, played by Rose Reynolds.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nNicolas Kent (This Tuesday<\/em>) and
\nMehmet Ergen (The Kid<\/em>) is sharp,
\nunfussy, and refreshing. The entire cast of Rose Reynolds, Tom McKay, Anne
\nAdams, Joseph Balderamma, Sam Dale, and Raj Ghatak, is strong and credible.<\/p>\n
\nthe US. They made me think I would like to be a fly on the wall hearing
\ndiscussions and debates among British operators of drones \u2013 or, rather
\n\u2018remotely-piloted air systems\u2019 which the Ministry of Defence insists on calling
\nthem, to distance the UK from similar US operations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"