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Timely words on the 1992 Los Angeles riots
Nina Bowers maintains a striking intensity throughout Twilight
[Cameron Slater]
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Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992
Gate Theatre, London
ANNA DEAVERE SMITH’S play brilliantly grasps the power and political impact of those bearing witness to momentous events.
First staged in 1994, this early example of verbatim theatre draws on interviews conducted in the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles riots and, in the process, explores the police beating of Rodney King, the killing of Latasha Harlins, the two King trials and race relations in the city.
The fragmented voices we hear provide no straightforward narrative. They are a constellation of disenfranchisement, bordered communities, oppression and violence yet, within that constellation, there are striking resonances.
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