The Events @ Everyman, Liverpool, 8-12 Apr

Edinburgh Fringe First Award-winner and the Guardian’s No. 1 play of 2013, David Greig’s quiet yet provocative drama The Events makes its way to Liverpool’s newly refurbished Everyman at the beginning of April. Asking some big questions about us, them, justice and the limits of empathy, The Events is a masterpiece of honesty that resonates within every community.

Claire is our challenged protagonist: the liberal vicar of a small seaside community whose understanding of the world is questioned when the choir she formed as a sanctuary for those in need becomes the target of a lethal attack by a gun-wielding local boy, ignorance his only motive. Unlike many in the choir, Claire survives the massacre but is filled with anger, a desire for revenge, and a desperate need for understanding. But is rationality enough?

This is a work written as a response to the killing of 77 people by Anders Breivik in 2011, and you may recall a slight Twitter flurry in response to Greig’s (perhaps a touch insensitive) research trip to Norway. But backing from German and Norwegian theatre groups, as well as the Actors Touring Company and the Young Vic, has proved Greig’s piece has earned itself a great deal of serious respect.

Directed by Ramin Gray, the production is accompanied by a soaring soundtrack, while a different local choir participates in each performance, rather like a Greek chorus, setting up a questioning dynamic between the group and the individual.

Responsible for Midsummer (Brighton Festival 2011), Dunsinane, The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (Brighton Festival 2012) and the new West End musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Greig is integrating himself firmly within the theatrical landscape, and it is well worth experiencing his work. [Alecia Marshall]