Details

Justifying War will provide a public forum to debate the issues raised by the Inquiry. Within 24 hours of the tragic death of Dr David Kelly the Government set up a public inquiry and Lord Hutton (a senior Law Lord was appointed to conduct it. At the first public hearing on 1st August, Lord Hutton made it clear that his Inquiry will be wide-reaching, and that he intended to get to the truth behind the events that led to Dr Kelly's death. The Inquiry will call witnesses including Tony Blair; Geoff Hoon; Alastair Campbell; Andrew Gilligan; Gavyn Davies, Chairman of the BBC; civil servants from the MOD and 10 Downing Street, as well as Dr Kelly's widow and daughter. The length and scope of Lord Hutton's Inquiry is as yet uncertain, but it is inevitable that the Government's case for war against Iraq will come under heavy scrutiny. Despite a petition by Geoffrey Robertson QC (on behalf of ITN, ITV and Sky) to lift the ban on televising the proceedings of the Inquiry, the evidence of witnesses to the Inquiry will not be broadcast. Richard Norton Taylor and Nicolas Kent, the team behind the Tricycle's staging of Half the Picture - The Scott Arms to Iraq Inquiry, Nuremberg - The 1946 War Crimes Trial, Srebrenica - The Hague 1996 Rule 61 Hearings and The Colour of Justice - The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry (all later broadcast on the BBC) will now be collaborating on Justifying War. Nicolas Kent, Artistic Director of the Tricycle Theatre says....."The Tricycle has a long tradition of opening up a debate on the issues raised by public inquiries. We firmly believe that it is in the public interest that audiences should be given as impartial an overview as is possible of the proceedings of inquiries on such important issues as the Scott Arms to Iraq Inquiry and the Macpherson Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, and now the Hutton Inquiry. One of the main reasons cited by Geoffrey Robertson QC for allowing the broadcast media access to the Hutton Inquiry was that only through the Tricycle Theatre's edited reconstruction of the Macpherson and Scott Inquiries did the public get a chance to see a TV or radio version of the proceedings. The Tricycle stages these Inquiries precisely because they are not broadcast. We hope very soon to see the day when we no longer need to stage them, through the Government ensuring that all Public Inquiries are fully available to the public in all media."

Creatives/Company

Producer: Tricycle Theatre
Director: Nicolas Kent
Other: Richard Norton-Taylor (editor)