Controversial terrorism play to take centre stage
Final rehearsals wrapped up today ahead of the Irish premiere of a controversial play about terrorists behind infamous atrocities.
Robin Soans’ Talking to Terrorists is a critically-acclaimed work of documentary theatre drawn from conversations with notorious bombers and their victims.
The title of the play is a quote from the former Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam who remarked before her death in 2005 that the only way to defeat terrorists was to talk to them.
IRA Brighton bomber Patrick Magee behind the failed plot to assassinate Margaret Thatcher and the entire British cabinet in 1994 is among those Soans spoke with when writing the show.
Two of his victims, the former UK Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Norman Tebbit and his wife, who was paralysed and left wheelchair-bound by the bombing, also contributed to the work.
Magee talks about his path to using violence during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, while Craig Murray, a former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, explores state terrorism.
A cast of eight will play 29 roles representing people directly affected by terrorism from Belfast, London, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Turkey and the Middle East.
The people interviewed for the play will not be called by their real name on stage, but will be easily identifiable by the places, times and situations they talk about.
The production, by the award-winning Calypso Theatre company, previews in Trinity College Dublin’s Samuel Beckett Theatre tomorrow night before opening to the public on Wednesday for 12 nights.
The play then moves to The Mill theatre in Dundrum and on to the Pavilion in Dun Laoghaire.
The playwright believes the work gives a fresh view to what drives those who carry out terrorist attacks.
“Why did I write this play?” asked Soans.
“Because it is so easy to be judgmental and moralistic, but before you make those judgements and take the moral high ground, there’s some more information I would like you to consider, and another perspective I’d like you to entertain.”
