Life
The Trials Theatre review: Beware the angry teens judging selfish adults
Dawn King’s play imagines how the very young may one day become judge and jury of the 'dinosaurs' who chose to pollute the planet
August 19, 2022 10:27
2 min read
Dawn King’s play imagines how the very young may one day become judge and jury of the 'dinosaurs' who chose to pollute the planet
August 19, 2022 10:27The Trials
Donmar Warehouse | ★★★✩✩
The idea that children might one day be charged with judging the generations who came before them has more than a whiff of Khmer Rouge and Cultural Revolution about it.
Yet this is the premise of Dawn King’s dystopic vision of the future. And with much of the planet burning as a result of the decisions made by today’s grown-ups, who is to say it isn’t heading our way?
Produced as part of the Donmar Local outreach project involving over 1300 children in the casting process, King’s play imagines how the very young may one day become judge and jury of the “dinosaurs” who chose to pollute the planet instead of protecting it.
Set in a near future in which the air is toxic , those found guilty will be executed, which has the added benefit of reducing demand on diminishing resources. So huge is the number of those who these teenage juries must try, each case is only allocated 15 minutes of deliberation after each defendant’s statement of mitigation.
Nigel Lindsay’s former advertising exec pleads that he broke no laws at the time his “crimes” were committed. His life was defined by “work” and “family”, he pleads. Yes it was a life of exotic holidays and two cars, and true, his three children were privately educated. But what parent doesn’t strive to give their children the best and did the skiing trips not also result in a better appreciation of the world’s natural beauty?
Being a flawed human is no mitigation in the minds of this mostly angry teenage jury. The defendant’s polluting life choices may not have been illegal at the time, but they were made after what has been retrospectively deemed as “the critical period”, after which it can be reasonably said that everyone was aware of the result that their actions or inactions had on the planet.
Pelumi Ibiloye and Jairaj Varsani
