Skip to main content

Trojan Horse

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Four stars

In 2014, a Birmingham school was accused of promoting Islamist propaganda in an attempt to radicalise its high-achieving students. As was eventually proven in court following national tabloid hysteria, such inflammatory notions were in fact complete hokum, and any ideology being promoted was more likely that propagated by government.

While the fall-out of the damage done prevails, it remains vital that what happened is shouted from the rooftops. This is more than achieved here in this touring revival of Helen Monks and Matt Woodhead’s verbatim play for their LUNG company, presented here in co-production with Leeds Playhouse.

Drawn from 200 hours of interviews, what could be a dry and dense affair is transformed in Woodhead’s production into an urgent dramatic dispatch from the frontline. As it gives voice to teachers and pupils caught in the crossfire as well as local councillors treading on eggshells, it lays bare how fake news can be manipulated by those in power.    

With five actors navigating their way around a set of choreographed school desks, each scene is punctuated by Owen Crouch’s beat-based sonic mash-ups and illuminated by Will Monks’ projections. Over the play’s eighty minutes, this makes for a vital and punchy treatise on how truth can be distorted to create calculated hysteria. Komal Amin, Mustafa Chaudhry, Gurkiran Kaur, Qasim Mahmood and Keshini Misha are a committed and well-drilled ensemble who show off the human face of the sort of everyday injustice too often lost to the dispassionate sleight of hand of official reports.

All of which is probably why the show understandably won the much missed Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award when it was first seen on the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Whether lessons have been learnt or not remains to be seen. Following its brief Edinburgh run and Glasgow dates this week, plans are afoot to present the show in Westminster itself. This should make for a lively and all too necessary piece of theatrical sedition.

The Herald, February 13th 2020

ends   


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Losing Touch With My Mind - Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990

DISC 1 1. THE STONE ROSES   -  Don’t Stop 2. SPACEMEN 3   -  Losing Touch With My Mind (Demo) 3. THE MODERN ART   -  Mind Train 4. 14 ICED BEARS   -  Mother Sleep 5. RED CHAIR FADEAWAY  -  Myra 6. BIFF BANG POW!   -  Five Minutes In The Life Of Greenwood Goulding 7. THE STAIRS  -  I Remember A Day 8. THE PRISONERS  -  In From The Cold 9. THE TELESCOPES   -  Everso 10. THE SEERS   -  Psych Out 11. MAGIC MUSHROOM BAND  -  You Can Be My L-S-D 12. THE HONEY SMUGGLERS  - Smokey Ice-Cream 13. THE MOONFLOWERS  -  We Dig Your Earth 14. THE SUGAR BATTLE   -  Colliding Minds 15. GOL GAPPAS   -  Albert Parker 16. PAUL ROLAND  -  In The Opium Den 17. THE THANES  -  Days Go Slowly By 18. THEE HYPNOTICS   -  Justice In Freedom (12" Version) ...

Myra Mcfadyen - An Obituary

Myra McFadyen – Actress   Born January 12th 1956; died October 18th 2024   Myra McFadyen, who has died aged 68, was an actress who brought a mercurial mix of lightness and depth to her work on stage and screen. Playwright and artistic director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, David Greig, called McFadyen “an utterly transformative, shamanic actor who could change a room and command an audience with a blink”. Citizens’ Theatre artistic director Dominic Hill described McFadyen’s portrayal of Puck in his 2019 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London as “funny, mischievous and ultimately heartbreaking.”   For many, McFadyen will be most recognisable from Mamma Mia!, the smash hit musical based around ABBA songs. McFadyen spent two years on the West End in Phyllida Lloyd’s original 1999 stage production, and was in both film offshoots. Other big screen turns included Rob Roy (1995) and Our Ladies (2019), both directed by Mi...

Big Gold Dreams – A Story of Scottish Independent Music 1977-1989

Disc 1 1. THE REZILLOS (My Baby Does) Good Sculptures (12/77)  2. THE EXILE Hooked On You (8/77) 3. DRIVE Jerkin’ (8/77) 4. VALVES Robot Love (9/77) 5. P.V.C. 2 Put You In The Picture (10/77) 6. JOHNNY & THE SELF ABUSERS Dead Vandals (11/77) 7. BEE BEE CEE You Gotta Know Girl (11/77) 8. SUBS Gimme Your Heart (2/78) 9. SKIDS Reasons (No Bad NB 1, 4/78) 10. FINGERPRINTZ Dancing With Myself (1/79)  11. THE ZIPS Take Me Down (4/79) 12. ANOTHER PRETTY FACE All The Boys Love Carrie (5/79)  13. VISITORS Electric Heat (5/79) 14. JOLT See Saw (6/79) 15. SIMPLE MINDS Chelsea Girl (6/79) 16. SHAKE Culture Shock (7/79) 17. HEADBOYS The Shape Of Things To Come (7/79) 18. FIRE EXIT Time Wall (8/79) 19. FREEZE Paranoia (9/79) 20. FAKES Sylvia Clarke (9/79) 21. TPI She’s Too Clever For Me (10/79) 22. FUN 4 Singing In The Showers (11/79) 23. FLOWERS Confessions (12/79) 24. TV21 Playing With Fire (4/80) 25. ALEX FERGUSSON Stay With Me Tonight (1980) ...