Fallujah
In 2007 Jonathan Holmes wrote, directed and produced the verbatim play Fallujah, which ran for 40 performances in a specially designed space at the Truman Brewery on Brick Lane. The play was accompanied by an original score by Nitin Sawhney and a unique installation set designed by Lucy Orta. The cast included Harriet Walter, Irene Jacob and Imogen Stubbs. The script of Fallujah was published at the same time, and is still the fullest account of the atrocities committed during the 2004-5 sieges of Fallujah.
& the published script of Fallujah
The production was covered by every English broadsheet, by the BBC (BBC 1, Radio 4, World Service, Radio 3), by Al-Jazeera and by The New York Times. Jon Snow at Channel Four News called it “brilliant cutting edge theatre. An exceptional audience experience." The show was ‘pick of the week’ in Time Out, and made it into the critics’ choice of the top five shows to see in London. It was also the third most emailed theatre production in New York, and featured on the front page of Yahoo! It has now become a set text on many US university syllabi and has toured to Prague and Berlin. Future productions are mooted in New York, Glasgow, Paris and Tel Aviv.
& from the reviews
& press coverage and web links
The sieges of Fallujah in 2004 constitute two of the most extensive human rights violations of recent times. Breaching over 70 articles of the Geneva conventions, US forces bombed schools and hospitals, sniped civilians with white flags (including children), cut off water and medical supplies, and instigated a chemical weapons assault, deploying napalm and white phosphorous. Fallujah incorporates testimony from those at the heart of the sieges: Iraqi civilians, clerics, US military and politicians, journalists, medics and aid workers and the British Army. Every word is verbatim.
Jonathan Holmes’ play ran for five weeks in May-June 2007 to significant acclaim, with a cast including Harriet Walter, Imogen Stubbs and Irene Jacob, and a subtle original soundscape by Nitin Sawhney. It resulted in the revelation of new evidence about the sieges, the successful defence (by Gareth Peirce) of those wrongly accused of incitement of terrorism, and a review of training methods in the British Army. It has since been performed in Berlin, Prague and Amsterdam, screened on Al-Jazeera and presented as protest theatre on campuses across America.
Irene Jacob playing the character Luce in Fallujah:
& 1 (00:01:29)
& 2 (00:01:43)
& 3 (00:01:40)
& 4 (00:02:46)
& photographs from the play by Thierry Bal
& those who helped make Fallujah happen
Fallujah was presented by Ilium Productions in association with the Institute of Contemporary Arts.