Nick of Time Productions Ltd presents GRENFELL: VALUE ENGINEERING - SCENES FROM THE INQUIRY this Autumn

A not-for-profit production of Grenfell: Value Engineering – Scenes From The Inquiry is set to run at the Tabernacle in Notting Hill and Birmingham Rep this Autumn, presented by Nick of Time Productions Ltd in association with the Playground Theatre.

Edited by Richard Norton-Taylor and directed by Nicholas Kent, this dramatisation sets out to discover why the devastating fire of 14 June 2017 happened after the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, and who was responsible for the deaths of 72 people.

The dramatic evidence, based entirely on the words of those involved in the current Grenfell Tower Inquiry, will run from 13 October - 13 November at the recently renovated Tabernacle in Notting Hill and at Birmingham Rep from 16 - 20 November.

Richard Norton-Taylor said: “Grenfell Tower, engulfed in flames in less than half an hour in the deadliest fire in a residential building since the Blitz, the worst loss of life in a single incident in London for more than 60 years, was still smouldering when survivors and families of the bereaved demanded a wide-ranging public inquiry into a disaster they had warned was waiting to happen. Their concerns about the risks of fire and obstacles in the way of evacuating the 24-storey building were dismissed by officials in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, one of the richest local authorities in Britain.

“The inquiry, under a former appeal court judge who is unlikely to report his conclusions before well into next year, has said the principal reason why the fire spread so rapidly was the decision to wrap the tower in extremely flammable material in its recent refurbishment. The inquiry exposed what lay behind the decision that led to the fatal conflagration, what a lawyer for the survivors and bereaved described as “a chronic culture of neglect, of indifference and discrimination underpinned by a theme of dishonesty”, and another called an “epidemic level of incompetence”.

“What has emerged from the inquiry is an extraordinary catalogue of greed, fraud, cheating and lying, secret fixing of fire tests on their products, subtle layers of corruption and racism, fatal cost-cutting, casual indifference, and practices which one young company executive called “completely unethical” and which some even joked about. It exposed fatal consequences of austerity and deregulation. The switch to cheaper, more combustible, material saved less than £300,000 on the £10m refurbishment. The cost was 72 lives and hundreds of bereaved relatives and friends. The cost to tenants and mortgage holders living in over 250 residential blocks clad with similar dangerous cladding – and to taxpayers – will amount to many hundreds of millions of pounds.

“The evidence in the Grenfell Inquiry reflects many of the problems deeply embedded in contemporary British society. I believe that presenting it to a theatre audience will lead to a wider understanding of the story behind a fire whose repercussions will be felt for many years.”

Producer of Nick of Time Productions, Nicholas Kent, said: “The Grenfell Tower Inquiry is vitally important in getting to the truth and holding to account those who were responsible for the disastrous refurbishment of the Tower. The resulting fire caused so many people to lose their lives, and so many others to endure such pain and trauma as well as the loss of their homes. We are grateful to The Tabernacle and The Playground Theatre for helping us bring this dramatisation of the Grenfell Inquiry to the local community. We are determined that people living around Grenfell Tower will be able to see this play for less than the price of a newspaper, and the rest of the country will be able to share the forensic work of the inquiry through this play and better understand the truth behind this avoidable tragedy.”

The Grenfell Inquiry is one of the most important public inquiries of the past two decades. It is a powerful example of the investigatory reach of the law and its ability to call people to account. It is of profound importance to the survivors of the tragedy and their families. The tragedy has also left an estimated 700,000 people still trapped in dangerous homes and has revealed hazardous construction problems going back many years that are now preventing three million others from selling their flats. The inquiry’s work has huge repercussions for present policy and better future regulation for millions of people living in social or private housing in the UK.

The inquiry has now been running for four years. This edited verbatim account of the inquiry is aimed at giving the public a clearer overview and access to the evidence.

For more information and to book tickets, please click here.