Shocked by truth

Bloody Sunday cuts to the disturbing essence of the inquiry

There is no stranger or more shocking piece of theatre in London than Richard Norton-Taylor's Bloody Sunday. I admit, though, it may be in doubtful taste to use the word "theatre" in this sombre instance.

For Norton-Taylor provides edited extracts from the recently completed, four-year Bloody Sunday Inquiry into that fatal civil rights march in Londonderry 33 years ago: 13 marchers were shot dead by British paratroopers and another 13 wounded.

Yet in artfully compressing 16 million words of lawyers' cut and witnesses' thrust, into two-and-a-quarter hours of theatre time, Norton-Taylor has done far more than neat editing.

This Guardian writer, who brought to the Tricycle dramatisations of War Crimes Tribunals and judicial inquiries has filleted the Bloody Sunday probings and cut to the disturbing essence. Were British soldiers shooting at marchers wielding firearms and bombs or did they run out of control? That is and was the big question. Norton-Taylor implictly answers it.

Few people probably keep in mind those dull, dutiful newspaper reports on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry or retain a sense of the whole political picture, Theatre, though, can make simple and vivid what appears complex and murky in print. Norton-Taylor, in another of director Nicolas Kent's impressively staged examples of theatre verité, arranges his Bloody Sunday extracts with all the artfulness of a master of serious theatrical suspense.

The shocking truth, either coaxed or extracted from the mouths of the confessional "Soldier S",the stonewalling "Soldier F" and Michael Cochrane's General Sir Robert Ford, caught in knots over his policy to "shoot the ringleaders", rushes out in a finale for which we have been well prepared.

Claire Spooner's elevated stage set, humming with activity, lawyers and unnamed officials, keeps Alan Parnaby's presiding Lord Saville, with his sudden sharp questions on the sidelines.

Pride of place goes to Jeremy Clyde's suave Michael Mansfield, the QC representing some of the bereft Bloody Sunday families, and Nick Sampson's Christopher Clarke, counsel to the inquiry. It is David Beames's compulsively watchable "Soldier S" who unlocks the key to the debacle of Bloody Sunday, by refusing to prevaricate or pretend.

Kent, who attended many of the tribunal hearings in Londonderry, ensures that the proceedings never take a turn to the histrionic. So the revelations of "Soldier S" are delivered in mesmerising calm: his assertion in 1972 that he had seen nail and acid bombs thrown from top-floor flats turn out to be impure fiction.

Charles Lawson's flinty Soldier F, claiming to have a mind wiped almost clean of memories, is elegantly shot down by Mansfield's line of canny questioning: how could Soldier F, with his lost memory, deny a witness's report that he had shot dead a Catholic waving a white handkerchief and intent upon helping a wounded man? How could he recollect the Catholic had a gun in his hand?

The catastrophe of Bloody Sunday, filtered through the admissions and contritions of Norton-Taylor's selected witnesses, comes to seem a politicalmilitary folly, tacitly agreed upon, to strike terror into anarchic Catholic hearts.

It went wildly wrong thanks to the paratroopers' murderous excesses. Norton-Taylor's fascinating Bloody Sunday gives the theatre a serious turn. It suggests how politics, diplomacy and war work in fearful real-life.

Until 7 May. Information: 020 7328 1000.

Bloody Sunday - Scenes From The Saville Inquiry

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in