GRENFELL: IN THE WORDS OF SURVIVORS Comes to St. Ann's Warehouse Next Month

St. Ann’s Warehouse will continue a season of major international works with the U.S. premiere of Gillian Slovo’s Grenfell: in the words of survivors (April 13 – May 12, 2024; opening April 21), co-directed by Phyllida Lloyd (Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, The Donmar Warehouse all-female Shakespeare Trilogy) and Anthony Simpson-Pike (The P Word). The “electrifying, edge-of-the-seat gripping…” (Time Out London) production from London’s National Theatre follows the resilient, multicultural North Kensington community who protected and cared for one another before, during, and after the devastating 2017 public housing tower fire. With this galvanizing work of verbatim theater, acclaimed director Phyllida Lloyd returns to St. Ann’s Warehouse, following the organization’s presentation of Lloyd’s groundbreaking productions in The Donmar Warehouse’s Shakespeare Trilogy, a “triumphant series…in which women play[ed] every role” (The New York Times). 

St. Ann’s Warehouse Artistic Director Susan Feldman says, “Some shows pierce the universe; they create a portal through which art and reality merge. They illuminate monumental issues, moving us to care, to act. Grenfell: in the words of survivors joins a pantheon of such transformative St. Ann’s experiences: Black Watch, The Jungle, Little Amal, Phyllida Lloyd’s Shakespeare Trilogy, The Hunt, to name a few. It is a privilege to have the artists, the author, and the survivors who contributed their stories amongst us, and to have their testimonies portrayed on our stage. From the time we first heard about Grenfell: in the words of survivors, we wanted to do it, knowing it would be extraordinary. And it is.”

The hundreds of residents of West London’s Grenfell Tower had their origins in the Caribbean, Portugal, Syria, Morocco, Ethiopia, Britain, and more: a thriving community of communities immediately familiar to any New Yorker. They protested loudly for years as their mismanaged public housing fell into disrepair. When the building went up in flames in 2017, there was no shock, only horror. In the end, 72 people lost their lives. Grenfell: in the words of survivors offers a compelling investigation into the catastrophe, driven by the survivors’ stories, their heroic acts, and their impassioned, ongoing struggle for justice.

South African-born writer and former English PEN President, Slovo, compiles haunting testimonies drawn from public inquiries and interviews with some of the survivors and bereaved. Woven together, they reveal what happened that night and the impact of the multiple failures that led to the national disaster, the UK’s worst residential fire since the bombings of World War II. 

Slovo grew up during apartheid before relocating to London when her parents were exiled for their anti-apartheid activism. (Her mother was later assassinated in Mozambique, where she was living and teaching. Her father ultimately returned to South Africa, where he served in Nelson Mandela’s cabinet as Minister of Housing). Slovo told ITV News, “[From an] early age, I learned what a lack of justice can do to a society and that is why I am interested in covering subjects like Grenfell.”

She watched the news horror-struck as the building burned, wondering, like so many others, what failures might have brought this about in one of the world’s wealthiest city’s wealthiest boroughs. In the unfolding news stories, she felt an absence of the voices of survivors and bereaved, and decided to create a work directly using their words and centering their experiences.

In an op-ed for The Evening Standard, Slovo recalls, “I met people who had stood outside and watched as lights went out and people died. I met experts who told me what led to the fire, and what needed to be changed. I collected testimony about the days that followed the fire, when it seemed as if the whole country was galvanized to help, while the government, both central and local, stood helplessly by. And finally, and most importantly, I was privileged to listen to some of the people who had escaped that burning building, and to some who had also lost loved ones. It wasn’t easy for them to talk to me about their experiences. I could see, and I could feel, how much the effort cost them. But those who chose to be interviewed did so because they wanted their stories to be told on a national stage. They wanted an audience to hear what had happened to them, so that they might prevent it happening to anyone else.” 

The relevance of telling these stories here and now came home this past February when a devastating fire—seemingly caused by flammable cladding, as it was at Grenfell—consumed an apartment building in Valencia, Spain. 

Phyllida Lloyd said, “This was never ‘just a play’. We wanted the audience to feel part of something and to leave outraged, moved, and activated. Grenfell: in the words of survivors makes you ask, ‘What kind of neighbor actually am I? What would I have done?’”

Anthony Simpson-Pike said, “Grenfell isn't just a national scandal, it reverberates around the world. It holds up a mirror and asks, what happens when we value profit over human life? This production is a call to action and the story of a community coming together and fighting back, demanding to be heard. Grenfell: in the words of survivors is an invitation to become part of a community and to invest in the radical power of knowing your neighbor.”

The cast of Grenfell: in the words of survivors includes Joe Alessi, Gaz Choudhry, Jackie Clune, Houda Echouafni, Mona Goodwin, Keaton Guimarães-Tolley, Ash Hunter, Rachid Sabitri, Michael Shaeffer,  Dominique Tipper, and Nahel Tzegai.

The creative team includes set and costume designer Georgia Lowe, lighting designer Azusa Ono, sound designer Donato Wharton, video designer Akhila Krishnan, composer Benjamin Kwasi Burrell, movement director Chi-San Howard, casting by Chandra Ruegg and Alastair Coomer CDG, and voice and dialect coach Hazel Holder.The production includes a short film made in collaboration with TEA Films. 

In connection with its American Premiere of Grenfell: in the words of survivors, St. Ann’s Warehouse will present two community-forum panel discussions. “Can Tragedy Change Policy?,” moderated by NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, will feature Grenfell survivors and bereaved in conversation with NYC-based activists including Karen Blondel (Recent David Prize winner and President of the Red Hook West Tenant Association and the Public Housing Civic Association) and Salim Drammeh (president of the Gambian Youth Organization, which has been central in advocating for survivors of the Bronx’s 2022 Twin Parks fire), following the matinee performance on Saturday, April 20. “Art as Activism,” moderated by actress, playwright, and MacArthur Fellow Anna Deavere Smith, will bring together the creators of the production and the people whose stories and words comprise the text of the play, on Wednesday, April 24 at 6:30pm. This talk will take place at the New School’s Theresa Lang Center, located at 55 W. 13th Street in Manhattan.

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