The Incident Room

Throughout my time as NODA representative, for London District 3, I have frequently found visiting Barnes Community Players (BCP) to be a source of quality entertainment. The Incident Room, written by Olivia Hurst and David Byrne, recreates the increasingly desperate attempts by West Yorkshire police to find the notorious Yorkshire Ripper. This was not your ‘usual’ theatre fare but, instead, promised to be a stark, behind the scenes view into police activities. I was intrigued to see how the audience would react to such a gruesome topic.  

In 1975 the Millgarth incident room was the epicentre of the biggest manhunt in British history. The first four women killed were sex workers and the room was not even established, or the murders taken seriously, until after the death of a schoolgirl in 1977. BCP’s production places women at the centre of the 1970’s male-dominated world with Sergeant Megan Winterburn the focus. It promised to capture the tensions, and failures of the police team together with the incompetence of the investigation and intense sexism of the time.

Susanna Conte is to be congratulated, as Director, for delivering an enthralling drama production and for gathering such a talented cast. With no set, and only minimal props, focus was entirely on the actors – all of whom appeared both confident in themselves and well-drilled in their individual characters and respective accents. Staging this production ‘in the round’ resulted in the audience quickly becoming immersed in the investigation and made the action even more hard-hitting. Overall, the pace was high and the production flowed. With the assistance of Fleur de Henrie Pearce (Producer) and Jane Gough (Production Manager) the end result was a definite success.

Congratulations once again to everyone at Barnes Community Players and those directly involved with The Incident Room. This was an excellent drama production and one worthy of recognition.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.