Talking to Terrorists

Talking to Terrorists is a play written by Robin Soans. It was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Bury St. Edmunds, England, on 21 April 2005. The play is written in the style of verbatim theatre where all of the dialogue is taken from real interviews and then recreated on stage. The play discusses the importance of resolving terrorism not with violence or conflict, but with negotiations and peaceful discussions.

Robin Soans took a year to write Talking to Terrorists, he wanted to bring light to an important issue he discovered while undertaking interviews. He mentions in the preface to his play that a relief worker had arrived at a village which had been recently destroyed. When the relief worker talked with the villagers, the relief worker discovered that the villagers were not angry because they were hungry and homeless, but because they had a story that no one would listen to. The relief worker mentioned to Soans, "A huge part of what we call terrorism arises from no-one listening." Soans wanted to emphasise not just the unheard stories of former terrorists throughout the play, but he wanted the audience to hear the tales of everyone involved and affected by terrorism.

The play opens up with SS1 and her husband discussing terrorism as a whole, Phoebe and Edward then discuss children involved in terrorism and the politics of it. Phoebe leaves and Edward talks about the difficulties of being a young Muslim in Luton, which leads to a sort of flashback conversation between four Muslim boys named Momsie, Aftab, Faiser, and Jab. After Edward's conversation, the five ex-terrorists (formerly members of the Irish Republican Army, the Ulster Volunteer Force, the Kurdish Workers Party, the National Resistance Army from Uganda, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade from Bethlehem) discuss their stories involving where they grew up and how they first became involved with terrorism. The four men and one woman exchange tales about their early years, some went to prison the majority of their young lives, while others held meetings with their groups members to discuss issues in their communities and governments. Act One ends with the Bethlehem schoolgirl talking about her life in Israel around Christmas and how she feels hostility towards local soldiers.

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