Nothing Ever Burns Down By Itself

Synopsis

Described as a "work in progress", this play marked the beginnings of Theatre Workshop's concern with death of Carlo Giuliani in Genoa during the protests against the G8 Conference held there in 2001. It looks at the experience of a myriad of people who converged on Genoa that summer. The audience gets a real sense of the contrasting convictions of the individuals participating (this is not a homogenous group as you would perhaps expect) and the solidarity that binds them regardless of differences. The plays goes on to tell of the death of carlo and the subsequent raid of the school in which the protestors slept. In spite of some reservations, Joyce MacMillan argues in The Scotsman that "the show makes good theatre because its subject-the demonstration in Genoa in 2001-is an intensely dramatic one, backed here by chilling film footage; and because Robert Rae's increasingly impressive mixed- ability company slam out some memorably intense performances" (October 2002). This play was later expanded to become Black Sun Over Genoa, which was performed in Edinburgh during the G8 conference at Gleneagles (2005).