Tricyle Journeys

End of an era last weekend as director Nick Kent retires from the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn after over twenty years.  Though the Tricycle produced a wide range of comedy and drama on Irish, Jewish, South African, American and Caribbean themes, Kent's reign will surely be remembered for its presentation of political theatre during the 90s and 00s when political engagement more or less vanished from mainstream stages. 

 And especially for pioneering a type of documentary political drama based entirely on factual records, trials, public inquiries and personal testimonies -all the more dramatically effective for their dispassion without polemic. Srebenica, Guantanamo, Bloody Sunday (the Saville Inquiry), the Hutton Inquiry into the death of David Kelly, Tactical Questioning into the death of Baha Mousa in Basra - all topics which need concentrated retrospective public attention  and don't usually get it, many brilliantly crafted from transcripts by Richard Norton Taylor. The most memorable must be The Colour of Justice, replaying the inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence and forcefully demonstrating the continuing need for outrage and investigation.     So

AVE ATQUE VALE

a great achievement and example to follow.