Theatre
Michael Portillo - Brief encounter
Published 18 April 2005
Theatre - A moving edit of a tragic day, but save some pity for others. By Michael Portillo
Bloody Sunday: scenes from the Saville inquiry
Tricycle Theatre, London NW6
Thirteen civilians died and a similar number were wounded during 30 fateful minutes in Derry on the afternoon of 30 January 1972. The Bloody Sunday inquiry was appointed by Tony Blair in 1998 and has not yet reported. The evidence submitted to it totals about 250 volumes, which contain between 20 and 30 million words. Statements have come from roughly 2,500 witnesses, of whom more than 900 have been interviewed. In the coming months, the Saville inquiry, at a cost of £155m, may finally tell us what happened on that day.
Richard Norton-Taylor has skilfully edited the inquiry transcripts to bring a dramatised version to the stage. The technique is familiar from his earlier plays, which brought to life the Hutton inquiry (into the death of David Kelly) and the Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry.
The audience needs to be on its guard. What can be presented in a theatre in a couple of hours can scarcely summarise an investigation that has gone on for years. And what's more, Norton-Taylor, a Guardian journalist, seems like a man with an agenda. Why else write books with titles such as Knee Deep in Dishonour (on arms to Iraq)? The establishment never emerges well from his writing. In his plays, each scene ends with a blackout, in order to give extra emphasis to a punchline that shocks us because it betrays the callousness, incompetence or dishonesty of the people in authority.
Still, Norton-Taylor's work is extremely good. This genre - using only verbatim material in a highly realistic presentation - succeeds on stage. It is another question whether it is good for London theatre that so many houses devote their time to this branch of documentary-making at the expense of opportunities for writers of original material.
As someone interested in politics, I am not complaining. Despite all the caveats about how the material is edited, we become familiar with the arguments and a little of the testimony throughout the play. Few people, other than the relatives of the Bloody Sunday dead, will have followed the Saville inquiry closely. Most will not even be aware of the opening statement by the counsel Christopher Clarke QC, which stretched over 42 days.
The argument of the play can be summarised as follows: none of those killed was armed; it was not the practice of the IRA to use the shelter of a march to open fire on the British army; terrorists did fire that day, but there is no evidence that they did so before soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment used their weapons; a senior officer in Northern Ireland, General Sir Robert Ford, had canvassed (but not adopted) a policy of firing on the ringleaders of the Derry riots; the paratroopers' arrest operation that Sunday, which took them into the Bogside no-go area, was counter to orders issued by Brigadier Andrew MacLellan, who commanded the 8th Infantry Brigade; at the Saville inquiry, soldiers who had fired the lethal shots variously claimed that they could remember nothing or admitted that the Royal Military Police had urged them to invent their original statements, given to the Widgery inquiry of 1972.
During his evidence to Saville, William Patrick McDonagh reported a moment in the shock following the shootings when "you could have heard a pin drop". During the play, there is a similar silence. The audience listens without a throat being cleared or a sweet paper rustled.
The acting is subdued and the inquiry's proceedings move at a pace. The audience knows that it cannot afford to miss anything - nothing will be repeated or underlined. Maps and transcripts of written statements flash up on screens around the theatre. I found them too small to read, but the need for concentration was reinforced.
Nick Sampson as Clarke has the longest role by far, and is thoroughly convincing as a barrister wholly on top of his brief. But Charles Lawson gets the best line as Michael Bridge. When asked: "Were you aware of bullets flying?" he answers: "Well, one of the bullets hit me, if you know what I mean."
Congratulations are due to the co-directors, Nicolas Kent and Charlotte Westenra, for ensuring that their illustrious cast does not overplay it. The production's realism is extraordinary; it is hard to remember that you are not watching the actual inquiry. Sorcha Cusack is memorable as Bernadette McAliskey (elected as Bernadette Devlin to the Westminster parliament in 1969 at the age of 21). When she denounces the whole inquiry because it is run by the British establishment, a roar of approval came from one part of the audience. Was that part of the play or was it spontaneous? I still don't know.
McAliskey's comment raises a broader issue of balance. Yes, the Saville inquiry is run by judges and barristers. But it will deliver truth to 13 Derry families. What closure will there ever be for those grieving for hundreds of soldiers murdered by the IRA? Even now that the Troubles are supposedly over, where is the truth for Robert McCartney's loved ones?
It is easy to make an audience indignant against the people in power, as Norton-Taylor does. But save some fury to hurl at the widow-makers among the Provos.
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