The National Theatre’s new play, Grenfell: in the words of survivors, written by Gillian Slovo and directed by Phyllida Lloyd and Anthony Simpson-Pike, aims to offer a voice to survivors of the fire.
This is a “verbatim play”. Often focused on communities that are marginalised or excluded, verbatim theatre emerged in the 1970s. It uses the words of real people as the basis for theatrical performance. The inclusion of “word for word” elements from conversations in these communities allows verbatim to explore a range of social and political issues and offer a voice to unheard perspectives.
On June 14 2017, a fire broke out in Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey residential housing block in North Kensington, west London. The tragedy claimed the lives of 72 residents of the tower. Over the six years since the fire, Slovo has conducted in-depth interviews with survivors and the bereaved, alongside members of the wider community living and working in the shadow of the still-standing shell of the building.
