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The Families of Lockerbie at The Nottingham Playhouse

Writer Ian Charles Douglas revisits a very modern tragedy.

Some subjects defy criticism. And this act of mass murder is among them. For those of us old enough to remember, we remember it vividly. We remember where we were when we learned of the disaster, who told us, and the cold chill that slipped into our hearts.

Thankfully then, it’s in the safe hands of Michael Eaton, one of Nottingham’s most experienced scribes and well known for television works such as ‘Shipman’ and ‘Signs and Wonders.’

Lockerbie, as he reminds us, was a turning point. The Cold War was ending and a new age of terrorism was upon us. And with it came a new style of international justice, or rather the lack of it. Worse, the ones left behind, the bereaved, became pawns in what Kipling called the Great Game, the struggle for control of the Middle East.

The lights go up on Heathrow, two passengers calling home, happily looking forward to Christmas. Then, with a touch of technical brilliance, an enormous radar screen is superimposed on the stage. A bleep fragments into multiple bleeps and then nothing.

But the disintegration of a Pan-Am airliner over Scotland was only the beginning. The victims' relatives had to endure another twenty years of investigations, political wrangling, the trial, the verdict, and that oh so painful and oh so publicised compassionate release.

Through a multimedia blend of authentic sources, witness testimonies, court transcripts, news footage, this story unfolds, always personalised by the ordeal of the widows, the mothers and the fathers.

The cast of four have to step into many shoes, not only the families, but journalists, politicians, judges, suspects and diplomats. Full credit then to the actors, jumping from accent to accent, juggling their roles with ease. David Beckford, as the interviewer, does a great job of holding together the threads of the story. Jennifer Woodward is Laura, the American wife who meets Geoffrey (Robert Benfield) and Maureen (Joan Moon) the English parents among the wrecked fuselage.

At first they become companions in sorrow. But as long years pass, a gulf as wide as the ocean separating our two countries opens between them. Anger erupts, following upon the heels of their great loss, numbing the pain and filling the void. Will they reconnect and together make some sort of sense to their loss, however heartrending?

But alongside this question there are so many more. Was there a conspiracy? Were the Iranians involved? Did our noble leaders give into the needs of the oil business? Was the convicted man an innocent scapegoat or a mass-murderer? Should he have faced the death penalty?

These very serious and never more relevant issues are brought to life in a kind of fictionalised docudrama. The production bravely confronts terrible truths, without a single drop of mawkishness or exploitation.

As I walked out of the Playhouse, into crowds happily looking forward to the weekend, I acknowledged a debt of thanks. The cast and crew have reminded me of the suffering of the families of Lockerbie, a suffering that has not yet ended.

Ian Douglas

www.iancharlesdouglas.co.uk

The Families of Lockerbie: Thurs June 10th to Saturday June 19th

For tickets call Nottingham Playhouse Box office on 0115 9419419 or book online. www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk