| By Susan Mansfield Published: 9/8/2011 |
The grand upstairs room of the Freemasons' Hall needs very little done to make it a courtroom, and so is the ideal setting for Liam Rudden's piece of interactive theatre. Each night a jury chosen from the audience will decide the fate of Charles Brand, accused of raping Jennifer Lyons in an Edinburgh nightclub.
Brand claims that Lyons consented to sex. Both parties were drunk and there were no witnesses. Is he a dangerous predator, or did she lead him on? After both have been questioned, and prosecution and defence counsels have done their best to persuade, the jury must decide.
Some of the procedures of court are truncated and some new ones added - members of the jury are allowed to ask their own questions of both defendant and victim. But the impact of this clever production is in the way it forces us decide on a verdict which will impact the lives of all concerned.
Who do we believe and why? Out of various conflicting accounts, how does one version emerge as "the truth"? If justice is in the hands of people like us, is it as clear-cut as it seems? Silence in Court demonstrates the power of interactive theatre.
New Town Theatre (Venue 7)
Brand claims that Lyons consented to sex. Both parties were drunk and there were no witnesses. Is he a dangerous predator, or did she lead him on? After both have been questioned, and prosecution and defence counsels have done their best to persuade, the jury must decide.
Some of the procedures of court are truncated and some new ones added - members of the jury are allowed to ask their own questions of both defendant and victim. But the impact of this clever production is in the way it forces us decide on a verdict which will impact the lives of all concerned.
Who do we believe and why? Out of various conflicting accounts, how does one version emerge as "the truth"? If justice is in the hands of people like us, is it as clear-cut as it seems? Silence in Court demonstrates the power of interactive theatre.
New Town Theatre (Venue 7)
