Theater Review by Carol Rocamora . . . .
Nine actors enter the performance space of St Ann’s Warehouse. Surrounded by the audience on all sides, it is stark and empty save for a dozen boxes. The actors are smiling. They introduce themselves: “I am Mona Goodwin. I play Hanan Wahabi.” And so on, till by the ninth, we’ve met all the members of this diverse ensemble, drawn in by their warm, welcoming manner.
But that comfort lasts only for a moment.
The shocking story they are about to tell belies their amiable greeting. They represent nine survivors of a recent catastrophe in London—a tragedy of overwhelming magnitude. In their own words, they recount the devastating fire in Grenfell Tower, a public housing high-rise in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, that killed seventy-two residents in the early hours of June 14, 2017.
Why are they telling it? Because it was a tragedy that could have been prevented. Period.
The story of Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors is told in a compelling dramatic form called verbatim theater, newly created in response to the urgent issues of our times. The American actress/activist Anna Deavere Smith introduced verbatim theater in the 1990s, with her powerful Fire in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles, in response to the race riots in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. Moises Kaufman’s Tectonic Theatre used the verbatim form in The Laramie Project, a response to the murder of Matthew Shepard, a student at the University of Wyoming, inspired by gay hatred. In both instances, the playscripts were based on interviews with first-hand witnesses of the events. Similarly, Gillian Slovo, a South African-born writer now living in the UK, responded to the unjust incarceration of dozens at the Guantanamo Bay detention center with Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom (2004).
And now Slovo has responded again to another recent injustice—namely, the tragic Grenfell fire—with the words of nine of its survivors, whom she interviewed extensively for the purpose of relaying the story first-hand. They could tell it more powerfully and eloquently than any dramatist possibly could, and Slovo knew it. So did the production’s director, Phyllida Lloyd, who has provided an empty space so that the words of the survivors take center stage. Georgia Lowe’s set features a theater-in-the-round configuration where the fine acting ensemble can move freely, mount the aisles, and sit among the audience members, inviting them to be immediate observers. Above their heads, there are screens where other information pertaining to the tragedy is projected.
The first act begins with the survivors’ expression of affection for their home in the Grenfell Towers—a building on the edge of an affluent community near Notting Hill that provided housing for many immigrants. Though their neighbors were millionaires (David Cameron, former Prime Minister, also lived nearby), the Grenfell residents were proud of their building. “It was a tower block, but it was home,” “It was a community,” “It was one big family,” as some described the building where 35 languages were spoken. “This is my place,” declared one Italian immigrant. “I’m on top.”
But, according to their narrative, things changed. As the area became more affluent, the local council neglected the building and it started to degenerate. Grenfell residents submitted grievances to the Tenants Management Association (TMO) in 2008 and were further distressed by a fire in a similar London building in 2009. Refurbishments finally began in 2014, but Grenfell residents were alarmed by the placement of boilers in dangerous locations, the use of highly combustible materials in the outside walls, the flawed installation of windows and doors, and the overall lack of proper fire prevention. In 2015, The Grenfell Action Group submitted a petition signed by 51 residents reporting safety issues in the building; and, in 2016 the TMO was served a notification of deficiencies by the London Fire Prevention Authority. However, it was clear that the TMO’s concerns were more about budget than resident safety.
This alarming build-up to the fire is narrated by the survivors, who also play roles of various participants in the official inquiry after the fire—including representatives of the local council and spokesmen for the companies who refurbished the building. The testimony of these outside figures—projected overhead on TV screens—is overwhelmingly damning. In retrospect, the Grenfell Action Group would be called “the prophets of the fire.”
Flooded with this information, an overwhelmed audience stumbles out into the lobby after Act I, dreading what will follow. Act II recounts the event of the fire itself in an excruciating chronology beginning at 1:29 A.M. on June 14, 2017. Each survivor narrates the moment-to-moment occurrences of that terrible night—and the loss of so many loved ones and neighbors. The details are heartrending: desperate phone calls for help, the smoke, the heat, the panic, the screams. One woman describes her harrowing walk through billows of black smoke, stumbling down eight flights, one child hanging on her neck, and two others held in either hand. The image of those stairs, illuminated on the stage floor (by lighting designer Azusa Ono), is indelible in my mind.
Ultimately, the power of this production lies in the words of these survivors. They ring out like a Greek chorus: “We told you this was going to happen,” “I’d give anything to turn back the clock,” “Our local authorities abandoned us,” “It was negligence and indifference,” “There is no justice for the dead.”
At the same time, there are words of wisdom: “The most important thing is human life and human decency.”
Playwright Gillian Slovo and director Phyllida Lloyd surprise us with an ending that adds a new dimension to the theater experience. One entire section of the audience is invited to sit on the floor of the stage, while a huge screen descends, projecting the words of other survivors.
It’s an event that inspires a sense of community for all of us in the theater as if indicating that this tragedy is ours to mourn together, to learn from it, and ensure that it doesn’t happen again. With Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors, Slovo has advanced verbatim theater to a new level of art and activism—one that includes community.
As one of the survivors said, “When the unimaginable happens, we have to look at the system and say ‘this is not working.’”
And in the words of another: “Everybody can be a voice for the voiceless.”
Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors. Through May 12 at St. Ann’s Warehouse (Brooklyn Bridge Park | 45 Water Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn). www.stannswarehouse.org
Photos: Teddy Wolff
