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 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 >
Archive video of Fallujah >
Post-performance talk, featuring Dahr Jamail, Scilla Elworthy, Jo Wilding and Jonathan Holmes
(01:13:00) >
Interviews with Irene Jacob playing the character Luce in Fallujah; four scenes: 1 (00:01:29) > 2
(00:01:43) > 3 (00:01:40) > 4 (00:02:46) >
Descriptive booklet >
Photographs from the play by Thierry Bal >

 

Fallujah was presented by Ilium Productions in association with the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Early drafts of the script received readings and workshops in 2006-7 at the ICA, at Central School of Speech and Drama, and at Embargo.

These actors participated:

Jami Barbakoff, Janice Barton, Alison Carney, Charlie Cattrall, Nicola Chalmers, Antonia Christophers, Eve Dallas, Alex Delamere, Matthew Douglas, Dolya Gavanski, Bella Merlin, Alex Tyerman.

It toured, in stripped-down physical theatre form, to the HAU Theatre, Berlin in February 2007 with the following cast:

Charlie Cattrall, Antonia Christophers, Eve Dallas.
Movement design by Janice Barton.

Finally, the four-week run at the Old Truman Brewery in May 2007 had this cast:

Chipo Chung, Irene Jacob, Chris Jarman, Dominic Jephcott, Shereen Martineau, Christopher Simpson, Imogen Stubbs, Harriet Walter.

The principal crew for the Ilium/ICA/OTB run was as follows:

Writer, director, producer: Jonathan Holmes
Production Manager: Ellen Mainwood
Assistant director & producer, casting: Alice Bray
Assistant producer: Laura Bonamici
Original music: Nitin Sawhney
Installation design: Lucy & Jorge Orta
Costume & poster design: Lucy Wilkinson
Lighting Design: Paul Need for 10 out of 10 productions
Sound design: David McEwan
VT design & filming: Nick Price, James Tovell Sound
Operators & riggers: Peter Readman, Daniel Payne
Stage Management: Joseph Fairweather Hole, Jon Monkhouse, Ian Nolan
Front of House: Antonia Christophers, Lola Joulin
Press: Natasha Plowright for the ICA, Idea Generation
Marketing: 1917corps
For OTB: Sarah Jones
Additional research: Nicola Chalmers
Website: Strange Shadows

These institutions supported the production:

LCACE, Royal Holloway College Arts Faculty & Enterprise Unit, Unltd. The Funding Network.

The play was funded largely by private investment; it went ahead thanks to the generosity of several committed individuals:

Polly McLean, Brian and Leigh Message, Doro Marden, Peter Yeo, Nicholas Merriman, Oliver Gillie, Jenny Sheridan, Joanna Lumley, Scilla Elworthy.

The following people contributed indelibly to the success of the production:

Jo Wilding, Canon Andrew White, Dahr Jamail, Major-General Patrick Cordingly, Rana Al-Aouiby, Peter Brook, Sarah Jones, Alice Hartmann, Michael Kustow, Fiona Shaw, Naji Haraj, Chris Jameson, Mohamed Osman, Sasha Roberts, Claire Davis, Cressida Langlands, Julia Guest, Chloe Lambourne, Ian Gillie & Blue Box, Raheel Mohammed, John Sloboda, George Monbiot, Suzie Leighton, Tony Greenwood, Lydia Daniels, Sarah Frain, Isabelle Fremeaux, Sam Evans, Andy Lavender, Ekow Eshun, Barbara Matthews, Caroline Teunissen, Sarah Gwonyoma, Maire Davies, Miles Anderson, Bella Merlin, Clare Hamman.

The play would never have happened without the involvement and support of Scilla Elworthy and Polly McLean.