The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning, Pleasance At St Thomas of Aquin’s High School, 6 to 25 August (except 11, 14, 21), £14/12 (£12/10 concessions)
National Theatre Wales’ award-winning political production, The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning, is to be staged at a school in Edinburgh this summer, as part of both the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the British Council Showcase. It will be staged simultaneously on stage, and in a live stream via an interactive website.
Written by Tim Price, and directed by the company’s artistic director, John E McGrath, this multimedia production tackles one of the most important political and digital stories of our age, and brings that story to both local and global audiences. It marries National Theatre Wales’ reputation for making pioneering multiplatform work with the extraordinary story of Bradley Manning, who spent much of his adolescence in Haverfordwest, west Wales.
Bradley Manning is the 25-year old US soldier accused of releasing 250,000 secret embassy cables and military logs from the Iraq and Afghan wars. After three years in prison, Manning now faces a court martial, accused of crimes that could mean life in jail. But just a few years ago, he was a teenager in west Wales. How did this happen? And who is responsible for his radicalisation?
Performances of The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning will be live-streamed on a dedicated website. Alongside this live stream, the site will host hyperlinks to websites, videos and articles relating to Bradley Manning’s story, and a live comment stream to which the audience will be encouraged to contribute. The site will be free to view and available live, globally during all stage performances.
National Theatre Wales calls this ‘hyper-connected theatre’ – a combination of a live online transmission of the performance, hyperlinks to background information, and an opportunity for the online audience to interact through livechat.
The production was originally performed in schools across Wales in April 2012, and opened at Tasker Milward School, Haverfordwest, which Bradley attended in his teens. The live-stream was watched by more than 8,000 people in 76 countries around the world.
In January this year, The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning won three Theatre Critics of Wales Awards; Best Director (for John E McGrath), Best Use of Digital/Online Content and Best Ensemble.
