MAYER WAKEFIELD is entertained but let down by an audacious production that, sadly, doesn't ring true
The Burning Tower
Kensal House, London/Touring
THEATRE presented in the heart of the community it represents is all too rare. But SPID (Social Political Innovative Direct) Theatre — is an award-winning youth charity that does just that. Specialising in community art on council estates, it has a track record of capturing real-life stories and giving voice to the unheard.
Based in Kensal House under the shadow of Grenfell Tower, the company had no option but to respond to the terrible tragedy on their doorstep, not easy when emotions are at their peak and shock obliterates even the simplest of words.
The result, though, is the complex and heartfelt interactive drama Burning Tower, after the tarot card image signifying drastic and dramatic change and turmoil.
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by drama that, despite accomplished performances, cannot overcome an unfocused script
MARY CONWAY keeps up with the sheer pace of a drama about the terrible gap between sanitised reporting and real-life turmoil of race and gender
YVETTE WILLIAMS and JOE DELANEY dissect the institutional dawdling that rubbed salt into the Grenfell open wounds prolonging the agony of survivors
MARY CONWAY applauds the timely revival of Miller’s study of people fatally deformed by the economics of survival


