Hard-hitting political drama SUS to run at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre next month

Dilated Theatre is proud to present SUS by Barrie Keeffe (Long Good Friday), directed by Paul Tomlinson. This hard-hitting political drama will run at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre from the 5th – 23rd March 2013.

Written in 1979 and set on the night of Thatcher's election, Keeffe's play tells the story of Delroy, an unemployed father of three, being interrogated by two corrupt police officers. Delroy has spent the night drinking, and assumes he is being held under the Suspect Under Suspicion (SUS) laws. As the evening progresses, he realises that he is in fact, actually being accused of the murder of his pregnant wife.

Keeffe's play exposes and anticipates what the Macpherson inquiry called "the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin".

In brief; “institutional racism”. This definition was in response to the assumption by police that Stephen Lawrence was the perpetrator rather than the victim of violence in 1993. Similarly in SUS, the officers here work on the premise that Delroy is a killer rather than a victim.

With the introduction of the Stop and Search power now granted to modern police, it could easily be argued that SUS is now more relevant than ever. Indeed in 2012 the Equalities and Human Rights Commission reported that the Met police is 11 times more likely to stop and search black people than white, and furthermore accused the Met of racial profiling.

With the segregation of the working class demonstrated in the recent London riots – harking back to the Brixton riots under Thatcher, Dilated Theatre’s revival questions whether these issues have progressed at all in the 30 years since the play was written, or whether they have become all the more relevant.

SUS is directed by Paul Tomlinson, whose previous directing credits include The Who’s Tommy (Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch), Frozen Assets (Half Moon), Hitler Dances (Greenwich Studio Theatre), Mendhi Night (Southwark Playhouse), and Force and Hypocrisy (Young Vic). Paul also directed the National Tour of The Norman Conquests, and for ten years worked as the Director of Productions at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch, where he directed two of Barrie Keeffe’s other plays. This will be the fourth play by Barrie Keeffe that he has directed.

Please visit  www.giantolive.com for more information and to book tickets.

Keep up to date with the latest theatre news, reviews & interviews on Twitter: @West_End_Frame