In the early hours of June 14th 2017, a fire broke out in a 24-storey tower block in North Kensington, London. What happened next, the BBC described as 'one of the UK's worst modern disasters'.
The emergency services were called and came to the scene quickly, however, complications in the building's cladding meant that the fire spread across the tower which burned for a further 60 hours. On the scene, there were more than 250 London Fire Brigade firefighters and 70 fire engines, 100 London Ambulance Service crews, over 20 ambulances, specialist paramedics, London Ambulance Service's Hazardous Area Response Team, the Metropolitan Police Service and London's Air Ambulance.
By morning, as people checked their Instagram for Kardashian updates and ate cereal, it became apparent that this horrific event claiming 72 officially recorded lives in the Grenfell Tower block in the country's capital in one of its richest boroughs might have been avoided and that this was more than an accident.
The residents of Grenfell Tower had, in the past, complained that the building was a fire hazard which caused public outrage of the management company KCTMO. Kensington and Chelsea Council were also severely criticised. Protests and unrest grew in the local community, and concerns over fire safety became national news. Prime Minister Theresa May ordered a public inquiry.
The Bread and Roses Theatre in South London is home for The Grenfell Project this week. The devised piece was sensitively executed by a talented young company and was a moving and robustly researched piece that tried to comprehend the what, how and why those events ever happened.
The company have painstakingly pieced together reports, interviews and meetings to present a visceral verbatim drama describing the loss of life and the aftermath in our diverse capital. Dealing with personal testimony and giving spotlight to the voices of those who were affected by this disaster made the production all the more horrific and fascinating. Eleanor Crouch brings her ensemble together to discuss and piece together the events before, during and after with eye-witness accounts of the night and of the subsequent inquiries.
The company, Esther Asabi, Daniel Brindley, Jamahyl Chan-Ellis, Eleanor Crouch, Gabrielle Ellison, Victoria Izzard and Amy Sherlock do a very fine job of playing the multitude of people effected by events.
It's a diligent piece, well plotted and deeply respectful. A painting of the tower makes up part of the set, created by Damal Carayol, who lost loved ones in the tragedy. He created it as a 'painful expression of anger'. He presented the piece to Teresa May in 10 Downing Street as part of his successful efforts to bring more diversity to the enquiry panel.
As a piece of theatre, sometimes less is more and with a few less lighting cues and a little more courage in the subject matter - stripped back storytelling - this earnest work by a talented company could make some serious waves.
Reviewer - Lucia Cox
on - 26/2/19
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