The Events, The Young Vic

 After acclaim and sellout success in 2013, David Greig's bold look at the aftermath of atrocity returns to the Young Vic for a limited run before touring New York. The Events won the Edinburgh Fringe First Award when it premiered then went on to be named thee Guardian's number one Best Theatre of 2013. If you missed it last year, make sure you catch this last leg of the London tour.

The Story...

The Events focuses on Claire, a right-on, left wing priest who leads a choir in a smallScottish community. Out of the blue, a young man whom she vaguely knows turns a gun on those who “aren’t from here”. We watch as Claire struggles to understand how someone could do such a thing, an attempt to fathom the unfathomable, which leads her on a path to self-destruction . 

The Background...

You couldn’t accuse Scottish playwright David Greig of being a one-trick pony. Following on from the current West End musical extravaganza  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , for which he wrote the libretto, and his fun-filled romp  The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart , this fragmentary look at the limits of forgiveness strikes an altogether more poignant note.

Alongside the actors, each performance involves a different chorus of nonprofessional singers, who stand in for the choir that is torn apart by the central act of violence. Part spectators, part performers, they sing a song they have chosen themselves as well as material they have been asked to prepare.

This production is directed by Ramin Gray, artistic director of Actors Touring Company, who is collaborating with Greig for a third time. The seeds of the show were sown during a conversation between the two of them in Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre – where the production premiered this summer – following the Anders Breivik massacre in Norway in 2011. Troubled by their reactions to these events, Greig and Gray turned to the stage to explore a range of complex ideas about violence, evil and the desire for retribution.