Verbatim theatre: Gladiator
Zahid Mubarek was an Asian teenager sentenced to 90 days in Feltham Young Offenders’ Institute for stealing £6′s worth of razor blades and interfering with a car. On 20 March 2000, the day he was due for release, he was attacked by his violently racist cell-mate, Robert Stewart. Mubarek died a week later.
Tanika Gupta turns this into, I think, an important piece of theatre particualrly in terms of what “verbatim” theatre can do and where it might be heading. It seems that it is dramatic, political, enlightening and inherently theatrical (which can be a problem for this style of theatre eg Hare’s Stuff Happens although not so much his Via Dolorosa). I grappled myself with some of these problems in Lost in Peru.
Furthermore, the piece is important in highlighting the varied culture that England is made up of (I guess we could call it “diversity” if we must) and some of the problems of white racism.
Lyn Gradner reviews it here and says:
“… The title of this piece refers as much to the family’s David-like tenacity in taking on the Goliath of the government and the prison service, as it does to the suggestion raised during the inquiry that prison officers saw it as sport to put ill-matched prisoners – such as a white racist and a black inmate – into the same cell and bet on the outcome… The power of this evening, staged with effective restraint and beautifully performed, is not just in its excavation of the failings of the prison service and the Feltham regime, but in the way it puts the victims centre stage… ”
Gladitor is on at Stratford East (and Sheffiled Crucile until sat) from 2nd to 12 November.
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About me
I'm a playwright and investment analyst. I have a broad range of interests: food, gardening, innovation & intellectual property, sustainability, architecture & design, writing and the arts. I sit on the board of Talawa Theatre Company and advise a CIS investment trust on socially responsible investments.
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Recent Work
Recent plays include, for theatre: Nakamitsu, Yellow Gentlemen, Lost in Peru, Lemon Love. For radio: Places in Between (R4), Patent Breaking Life Saving (WS).
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Nakamitsu
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Yellow Gentlemen
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