A new dramatization of the deadly 2017 Grenfell Tower tragedy is being staged next month at the St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York, after traveling from the National Theatre in London, where it premiered last summer.
Playwright Gillian Slovo’s interviews with survivors are the basis for the play’s verbatim dialog. Directors Phyllida Lloyd and Anthony Simpson-Pike will reprise their roles for the four-week run, beginning an opening night performance on April 13th.
A July review of the first adaptation from The Guardian called it “a masterpiece of forensic fury.” The New York Times’ Alex Marshall wrote about the play's proselytizing effects, framing it as a democratic and justice-driven “call for change.”
The aftermath of the blaze that claimed the lives of 72 people has indeed led to several proactive reforms, including a recent mandate concerning cladding remediation and the appointment of a new building safety regulator. Potential criminal charges stemming from the London Metropolitan Police's investigation still loom for cladding manufacturers Kingspan, Celotex, other subcontractors, and former employees of the defunct Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation.
“I began to think that one of the things that was missing from these stories is the people who lived in that tower. To have their voices. To hear what it was like for them to live in the tower. How they tried to change events unsuccessfully because no one would listen to them. And how they banded together at the end of the fire to help each other when the state, both big and small, failed them,” Slovo told CNN's Christiane Amanpour about her motivations in an interview last year.
'Grenfell: in the words of survivors' runs through May 12th.
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