War and Piece
BBC researchers Ben Freedman and Mimi Poskitt turned memories of the July 7 bombings into a stage play
Compiled by Nuala calvi
In the aftermath of July 7, 2005 two BBC researchers started to collect the testimonies of people who were directly and indirectly affected by the London bombings,
From the survivors who were in the carriages where the bombs exploded, to young Muslims living in London, Iraqi soldiers and anti-war politicians, Ben Freedman and Mimi Poskitt found scores of people willing to share their experiences of the day that change there lives.
Their stories were brought together to form the basis of Yesterday Was a Weird Day, a startling piece of documentary theatre that premiered at last year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe and comes to London’s BAC this week.
“We decide immediacy of theatre lent itself to tough subject such as this,” says Ben, how co-directed the show with Mimi and forms one half of theatre company, Look Left Look Right.
“But you can do a disservice to the topic if you make it too emotive or dramatic, which is why approaching it from a factual point of view is good. We wanted to remain quite neutral.”
The interviews are re-enacted on stage word for word, along side visual
and audio footage, and include reflections from MPs George Galloway and the
late Robin Cook.
They are constantly being added to as more people come forward.
“We’re still getting interesting information coming in, like a nurse who assited in one of the hospitals,” says Mimi. “We see the production like a news-gathering process that is consistently changing. Should any-thing happen during the run that it would make sense to include the piece, we will do so.”
The show’s evolving nature is reflected in the set, designed by Claire Spooner, who also worked on the documentary theatre classic Bloody Sunday at the tricycle Theatre. It features billboards that change according to the current day’s headlines.
For authenticity, the actors learn their lines not from the page, but from
listening to the recorded accounts of their subjects.
“
we’ve met these people, so it’s impossible just to think of them
as characters in a play as you normally would,” says Ben.
We wanted to include the ums and ahs, the silences, the way that, when people are upset, they don’t quite communicate coherently. It’s interesting how the British sense of humour kicks in whenever people get to a point where they might be about to get really upset – they’ll crack joke and suddenly the whole thing changes.
“What they’re saying is something really horrific but what’s quite uplifting about it is that the way we tell the story is very real, full of humour and filled with hope as well, which means it’s not a really heavy piece.”
The proceeds of the show are going to the bombings relief fund and some of the interviewees will be attending one of the performances during the run.
“That will be the most important evening,” says Mimi. “There will be a really unique energy in the theatre that night. None of the actors are worried about the press night – that’s the one they’re scared about.”
