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This Much is True

Published Wednesday 4 November 2009 at 12:05 by Sally Stott

Four years after the shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes and a series of theatre, film and TV dramatisations later, and you may feel that there isn’t a Stockwell transcript left to be given the verbatim treatment - but this is a production that nonetheless finds something new to say.

Using first-hand interviews, along with records from the time and media reports, Paul Unwin and Sarah Beck juxtapose the perspectives of law enforcers, family members and campaigners to form a detailed account of how an innocent man came to be mistaken for a terrorist and shot by the police at Stockwell tube station. It may now be a familiar story, but lesser known aspects - such as the police’s shoddy attempts to taint De Menezes’ reputation and their treatment of his family - are insightful and pertinent.

Director Tim Roseman’s immersive production is well-complemented by slick performances from the versatile cast and set against a dynamic audiovisual landscape. At times the tirade of information can feel overwhelming, but the weird idiosyncrasies of real life speech offer some lovely moments of light relief.

One of the play’s most original (but perhaps least deliberate) observations depicts the gulf that exists between immigrant families, such as that of De Menezes, and their well to do, socially-concerned campaigners. Somewhat bizarrely, the actors playing the De Menezes family are listed separately to everyone else in the play’s programme. Will ‘Justice 4 Jean’ ever be achieved? Hopefully, but whether Londoners of all backgrounds will be given equal respect and protection in the future is another matter.

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