The State We're In

In a festival where political discussion is so often dominated by stand-up comedy, it is a pleasure to discover a strong piece of political theatre that engages an audience without dictating to them.

The State We’re In tells the true story of Brian Haw, a peace campaigner who has spent the last eight years demonstrating outside the Houses of Parliament in London. Haw protests against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and campaigns relentlessly for the protection of civil liberties. Writer Zia Trench and director Justin Butcher bring his story to the stage through the character of Tommy Price, played admirably by Michael Byrne. The play follows his tenacious determination to remain camped in Parliament Square, a permanent eyesore to the members of Parliament who he routinely cat calls. Despite pleas from his wife to return home, public apathy and police brutality he remains on his post, single-mindedly determined to change the world through peaceful demonstration.

Julie Higgenson is wonderful as Tommy’s long-suffering wife, Sophie, who has to live with the knowledge that she and their children will always come second to Tommy’s cause. Diana Walker and Amaka Okafor play an MP and an idealistic journalist respectively, but their characters are a little the predictable. Walker, for example, evolves into a silver-tongued politician while Okafor is unhappily broken by the government spin machine.

It is remains unclear exactly what made Tommy pitch his tent, and even more so what makes him stay. His struggle serves as a reminder both of our faults and our power, but at the end of the play he is still sitting, alone.