“I remember my knees cringing because I couldn’t breathe anymore, thinking, ‘This is it.'”
Monday night, actor Ash Hunter took to the stage at London’s National Theater to play Nicholas Burton, one of about 300 people trapped in a burning London apartment complex six years ago. Hunter spoke in Burton’s own words.
“Every breath was just hot black smoke,” the actor said, visibly sweating and breathing fast.
On June 14, 2017, a refrigerator caught fire in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in London. Residents were advised to stay in their apartments as the fire should have been easily extinguished. Within minutes, however, the building, which had been covered in flammable material due to lax building regulations, was engulfed in flames. The fire was the deadliest fire in Britain in more than 100 years.
That night, Hunter said in the play, Barton fell asleep watching a DVD near his wife, Pirie, who has Alzheimer’s disease. He was awakened by a knock on the front door, and when he opened it, thick smoke filled the room. Ms. Burton knew she couldn’t carry her down the dozen flights of stairs, so she took her to the bathroom and waited for her help.
Hunter said onstage that he thought Burton was going to die. His wife later did the same, becoming the 72nd and final victim of the fire.
Burton, Gillian Slobo’sGrenfell: In the Words of a Survivorwill run until 26 August at the National, one of Britain’s most important theaters. On Monday, some audience members shook their heads as they listened to a catalog of survivors’ experiences and the mismanagement that led to the fire. Some people shed tears at the end of the minimally directed production.
Years after the fire, Grenfell continues to cast a shadow over British life. Most of Grenfell Tower’s units are part of the UK’s public housing system, and the fire highlighted neglect within that system and unsafe building practices across the country.Ann official investigation fire is in progress police investigation.
With few solutions available for bereaved families, some of Britain’s leading cultural institutions and artists have begun producing works about the tragedy. In addition to the production of the National Theater, The BBC announced earlier this year A television drama about the fire is planned, and in April, artist and director Steve McQueen will Presented A 24-minute video work at the Serpentine Gallery, London. Filmed using a helicopter, McQueen’s “Grenfell” shows the burning skyscraper standing in December 2017, days before it was covered with white plastic sheeting.
“I am determined to never forget this piece,” McQueen said in a statement accompanying the piece.
Tragedy survivors and local residents have had mixed reactions to these projects. Shortly after the BBC TV drama was announced, Cecilia Corso, a resident of the housing project that includes Grenfell Tower, said: Online petition started Calling for the cancellation of the program. The petition has over 61,000 signatures.
In an email interview, Corso wrote that she found the idea of someone trying to watch a dramatization of the fire “overwhelmingly offensive.” Survivors have been waiting for justice for years, and in the meantime “the only thing that seems to be moving fast is the plan to make entertainment out of this tragedy,” she wrote.
Playwright Slobo said in a recent interview at the theater that while such reactions were understandable, he wanted the play’s critics to “come see what we did.” Slobo said her aim was to “extend” the voices of survivors and the fires are a key example of how governments and businesses “put profit before people’s lives”. added. Grenfell “is a lesson, not just for Britain, but for all of us,” she said.
Slobo is a South African-born playwright who has written several verbatim plays. About the riots in Englandbegan work on ‘Grenfell’ six months after the fire. She said she was shocked that fires could occur in a wealthy city like London, and how the voices of survivors were missing from most media reports and official discussions of the tragedy. Instead, tabloids were filled with ignorant theories and articles portraying the bereaved as “poor or asylum seekers,” Slobo said.
Slobo conducted some 80 interviews over the years and sent the records to survivors so they could delete anything they didn’t want to play on stage. She corroborated these interviews with transcripts from official government investigations.
Slobo said there were challenges in turning the material into a play, including “never wanting it to be a soap opera” and making sure the play wasn’t traumatic.
To ensure that, “Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors” is staged in extraordinary circumstances. The film opens with the house lit up and the actors introducing themselves and playing out their respective survivors. The cast then reassures the audience that the play does not contain any footage of the actual fire and that the audience is free to leave the auditorium at any time and come back when they are ready. At the preview, a therapist sat in the audience and provided additional support.
Pearl McKee, who played Natasha Elcock, a woman who used bath water to put out a fire and lost her uncle in the fire, said she was upset by the horror of the incident before she even read the script. Even after the casting was confirmed, McKee said, “I was worried that my own personal reaction would come out every night and that it wouldn’t serve the truth of the character I was playing.”
But after meeting Elcock, McKee said he realized he could portray an entire community on stage, rather than defining Elcock by this one tragedy. The play was “the most important thing I’ve ever done,” McKee said.
All of the survivors pictured were invited to see the play, and some did. Ed Duffern, who lived on the 16th floor, said in his recent interview that he couldn’t find words to describe how he felt while watching the film. “I distanced myself from myself, mostly as a defense,” he said.
Dufferne knew the other survivors would not be able to leave on their own, but said the play and other Grenfell creative projects were essential to keeping the tragedy in the public consciousness. He added that he claimed Mr Duffern said homes across England were still covered with combustible cladding, adding that “there was never a sound of handcuffs”.
Monday night’s performance concluded with a short film in which survivors and bereaved families, including Burton, discuss life today and what they would like audiences to take away from the play.
Afterwards, the cast handed the audience a placard in the shape of a green heart (a symbol reminiscent of Grenfell) with letters such as “justice” written on it, and asked everyone to follow it outside.
The audience silently did what was asked of them. Hundreds of people held placards and sang aloud about London night. For a moment, the evening became more than theatrical. It demanded change.
