The riots of last summer divided opinion so sharply as to light a beacon to the wildly contrasting opinion people harbour for the society in which they live. Depending on who you spoke to the riots pointed to all sorts of things; mindless opportunism, sheer criminality from bored unemployed children, a demonstration of our glorification of material possessions, or a deep rooted social-economic problem that made events inevitable, as the gap between the rich and poor becomes wider and youth unemployment soars.
An inconceivably difficult job then, to incorporate the extent of this opinion and debate into a two hour long piece of theatre, but Gillian Slovo's 'The Riots' somehow manages to accomplish it. Compiled over 50 hours of interviews, eye witness accounts and extensive research, the painstaking effort for this sort of intense analysis can only be admired.
The impact of social networking has long been talked about as a large factor in the development of the riots, and as the audience take their seats, a scrolling screen of twitter feed acts as a backdrop to the stage, a provocative way of demonstrating the influence it undeniably had.
The first half of the performance gives us eye witness accounts from people in the local community, from Chief Inspectors demonstrating their disorganisation as they struggled to contain the scenes, to friends of the Mark Duggan family, the man who was shot by police, an incident largely responsible for the first signs of disorder that were set to escalate. The people who labelled the riots as 'mindless opportunism' are perhaps given a smoment's vindication, as we see accounts from people who were indeed clearly out to take advantage of being able to attain the things that they would never normally be able to posses, but as is pointed out 'there are people who are genuinely angry, and there are people who jump on that anger.' It is hard to get away from the troubled social issues that led to the riots, as the play accurately highlights.
Though perhaps the performance could be accused of showing a political bias to the left, it never lends itself to preaching or telling the audience what to think, leaving them to deduce what they will from it.
Politicians are painted in a negative light. Dianne Abbott, played to a righteous tee by Donna Coll, sees events as a recurrence of the Brixton race riots, despite it widely being considered that they came about as a result of an antipathy towards the police. Something which can absolutely be drawn as a parallel to last summer's events. The Guardian/LSE inquiry showed that 'stop and search' tactics adopted by police have done much to increase harboured feelings of animosity from young people that, it is suggested, would inevitably implode into the frenzy that was the events of last summer.
Michael Gove is appropriately pompous in his attempts to understand why the riots occurred, while John McDonnell is the voice of reason for the concerned, analytical lefties, and his views certainly seem to resonate with the audience appreciation of the complexity of the issues that surrounded the event.
One interesting take is that of a representation of a Hackney resident, who, despite being dismayed by the riots, is far more put out by the 'army of cleaner-upers' who descended onto the streets in the aftermath of the riots. She sees it as patronising, as the 'do-gooders' come marching up their streets with their brand new brushes, to clean up the scrubby dwelling areas of the working class. A viewpoint that was largely ignored by the media, as the overall interpretation of this contrived event seemed to be revelling in the suggestion that 'look, we're not all bad.'
'The riots' is a highly relevant, engrossing and thought-provoking watch, that goes a long way to successfully summarise the contrasting feelings of the nation. As unemployment continues to grow, and the gap between the working class in council estates and the politicians in their cosy Westminster bubble continues to grow, you are left with the feeling that 'The riots' is a very important piece of theatre that should be brought to a wider audience.
