Staging the law :|verbatim theatre and access to justice

Abstract

This thesis suggests that the term “access to justice” should be interpreted as broadly as possible in order to produce a smooth, effective and fair form of justice. Specifically, I argue that verbatim theatre, besides its political and social role, might gain a legal role and become fundamental in victims’ quest for justice, as seen in three verbatim plays produced in the United Kingdom at the turn of the century: Richard Norton-Taylor’s The Colour of Justice, Tanika Gupta’s Gladiator Games, and Philip Ralph’s Deep Cut. With their lengthy trials, their failure to punish the perpetrators and their excessive media coverages, the murder cases of Stephen Lawrence Zahid Mubarek, and Cheryl James pose various questions about the fragility of the law. Aiming to show formal criminal systems’ failure to bring justice, the plays offer a more focused account of the events surrounding these three cases, and target a more ready-to-engage audience. As a result, the plays inspire an alternative justice-building process aimed at achieving restorative justice. Overall, the plays and the cases unveil the ambiguity of the relationship between the law and theatre in general and between restorative justice and verbatim theatre in particular.