The Riots review, Tricycle Theatre

So, Blood, them there summer riots, what caused them?  Errrr... the shooting of Mark Duggan, a bad police response followed by absolutely no police response which made an incensed crowd grow steadily more angry and more brazen, and the appearance on the back of this disorder of  rubberneckers, gangs and the looting equivalent of the SWP... The rest is history.

All riot on the western front

It was ambitious of The Tricycle to commission an inquiry into the criminality that swept our cities earlier this year, and optimistic to expect anything more at the end than narratives we already know, tinged with the small personal details that are delightful to hear but add nothing to the existing archive. That isn't to say the testimonies of participants, politicians and policemen aren't moving or interesting when collected by the sharp-eyed Gillian Slovo and shaped by Artistic Director Nick Kent. They are. What they're not is illuminating.

The reason is simple: the dust hasn't yet settled. Vital questions remain unanswered. If the police had acted quickly, would the riots ever have happened? Is the fact that they didn't - or couldn't - respond quickly more of an issue than the riots themselves? Is society responsible for the lawless, or are they responsible for themselves? Given the mixed ethnicity of the rioters, should we not be looking further back in history than Brixton and Broadwater Farm to frame events? How do the summer riots feed into the protests outside St Paul's right now: where is the breach in that particular wall?

In conclusion: As an exercise in dramatic interrogation and intervention, The Riots continues the Tricycle's celebrated cycle of inquiries, but without the structure of an official investigation or the gift of hindsight, it fails to deliver.

References:
Tricycle Theatre, buy tickets
Charles Spencer review, The Daily Telegraph