A Very Different Venue

On Thursday 9th February 2006, I attended a play reading by The Tricycle Theatre Company of their production "Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom". The event was hosted by Reprieve, a national charity that represents prisoners overseas and took place in the House of Commons. "Guantanamo" was being performed by the company as a play reading since the speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin, would not allow a full performance in the Palace. We sat in the august setting of committee room 14 whilst the cast performed centre stage.The content was harrowing. The mistreatment of the numerous detainees beggared belief. We listened to testimonies from actors portraying inmates Moazzam Begg, Wahab al-Rawi and Jamal al-Harith as to their inhumane treatment and the conditions they endured for so many years. We also heard explanations and excuses for inaction by prominent US officials, seconded by leading members of our own government. The various strands of the narrative were drawn together by Clive Stafford Smith, prominent human rights barrister, playing himself. He left us with the message that if respective western governments did not take appropriate action to resolve the Guantanamo nightmare, since nothing had been done at the time to provide detainees with any form of legal representation, that it could still yet erupt with devastating consequences. It had been an abandonment of western values and human rights. After the play reading, we stayed on for a discussion with the actors as to how they felt portraying the pain of their characters. This was brought home when Moazzam Begg came up from the audience and joined the debate, echoing at first hand what we had just been told through the medium of a gripping play reading. However, the real injustice at Guantanamo continues.
David Merkel