The Tricycle theatre’s cycle of plays about Afghanistan, The Great Game, is to be performed at the Pentagon in Washington to an audience of American policy and decision makers, military and government officials, service members and veterans.
The Great Game: Afghanistan began life at Kilburn’s Tricycle theatre in 2009. A cycle of 12 new plays split into three parts, the production explored the history and culture of Afghanistan from the perspective of playwrights including Ron Hutchinson, David Greig, Richard Bean, Abi Morgan and Simon Stephens.
Such was the season’s success that it returned to the Tricycle in 2010 before embarking on a US tour. A similar private viewing of the plays for UK military officials was given prior to the production’s departure for the US. Speaking about that event, the UK’s top military commander General Sir David Richards said, “I can tell you that the Ministry of Defence as a whole, and certainly the armed forces desperately want to understand the country well, and this series of plays – if I had seen it before I had deployed [to Afghanistan] myself in 2005 for the first time – would have made me a much better Commander of the ISAF Forces.”
Nicolas Kent, Artistic Director of the Tricycle theatre, commented: “We are honoured to have been asked to perform our production The Great Game: Afghanistan for the Pentagon. It confirms the power of theatre to engage with contemporary policy issues and spark debate, to educate and to challenge, as well as to entertain.”
The Tricycle theatre is well known for its commitment to issue-based and political theatre. Previous productions have addressed subjects including the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the Iraq war and Bloody Sunday. Last year the theatre produced a cycle of plays looking at the role of women in British politics, to coincide with the general election in May.
CB