THE METRO - YESTERDAY WAS A WEIRD DAY
This response to the London bombings of July 7 is not the product of a writer in traditional pursuit of a particular social agenda or artistic vision.
Instead, Look Left Look Right has wholly structured this effective piece on a series of interviews with private individuals and public figures including Inayat Bangawald of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, MI5 renegade David Shayler and somewhat eerily, given Toby Manley’s credible portrayal – late MP and former cabinet minister Robin Cook.
Stylistically similar to the excellent The Exonerated, the four actors verbatim monologues of the actual interviews, replete with the stutters, pauses, tears and contradictions you’d expect of those attempting to make some sort of sense of an awful situation.
It is the accounts of two survivors that are most striking. Trapped among the dying while on their way to another day at the office, they convey the chilling banality of terror.
This elegant, humbling piece is testament to the healing potential of bearing witness.
Until Aug 29, Sweet on the Grassmarket, 5.20pm
