Staging a massacre

Daniel Nelson

Hours before, the group had been spotted by a US drone operator making their way on a track across the border with Iraq.

The theatre’s publicity describes describes the Roboski massacre as “one of the most controversial episodes in the ‘war on terror’" and the play as “a story of malicious commands and mournful commemorations; an urgent, powerful insight into the state of modern warfare.”

Turning such horrors into theatre is difficult, but author Anders Lustgarten, a human rights campaigner turned writer, is confident, and not just because he worked in Kurdish areas of Turkey for two years.

"All my plays are about why things really happen," he says: the tendency is to pin the blame on a particular person "but it's not that some nutter in an army uniform doesn't like Kurds. I'm more concerned with systems that cause human suffering.

"In the case of Shrapnel, there's a specific attack, but it wouldn't happen without a whole framework of politics in the region."

Other individuals and organisations are also complicit, such as the arms industry, "which ignores the ultimate impact of its products, which is the violent death of other people, largely poor.".

He cites the case of a weapons manufacturer which boasted of its carbon-neutral stance. To which Lustgarten responds,  "Mate, what about the people and places you helped destroy?"

Roboski was a major incident in Turkey "but no-one knows what was really behind it". He says he was writing the play as the Israelis were bombing Gaza: "I made the play specific, but it could be anywhere.

"It's schematic. Thirty-four people were killed, so I wrote 34 scenes. I want to give a voice to those 34 people."

The play, he insists, is meant to be suggestive rather than explanatory. People want answers, but he hopes audiences will leave with a wider understanding of how persecution occurs.

How does writing compare with activism (he’s been arrested in four continents)?

"Activism has been professionalised to death," he says. "Well-meaning people with a 2:1 from York decide it's a recognisable liberal profession ... You end up going to a lot of conferences. It's become tiresome."

In addition, writing has made him more tolerant of other points of view: "As a writer, you put yourself in other people's shoes. You have to write from the perspective of people you don't like or wouldn't be drawn to. It's more interesting."

Another of his plays, Lampedusa, will be staged at the Soho Theatre in April.

* Shrapnel: 34 Fragments of a Massacre is at the Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, 11 March-2 April. Info: 7503 1646

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