UNITED KINGDOM: The story of Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks is brought to life in an electrifying mix of dance and documentary

The first Guantanamo Bay inmate convicted of supporting terrorism by a U.S. military court was the subject of an exuberant theatre performance in London on Tuesday (November 14). "Honour Bound" tells the story of Australian David Hicks, who was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001 and spent five years in Guantanamo before he was sentenced in March to seven years' jail. Hicks was the first person convicted by a U.S. war crimes tribunal since World War Two and the first of hundreds of foreign captives held at the Guantanamo Bay to face a military trial. Nigel Jamieson, the play's director, said at the time of Hicks' capture, most Australians were apathetic to the situation and Jamieson said it was important to spark dialogue about human rights. "Well when we started making this show, David Hicks, an Australian citizen was in Guantanamo. And there was surprisingly little discussion about his situation and yet it seemed in terms of the Australian government accepting him without giving him trial, without recourse to habeus corpus, or one of those parts of our legal system that has been important for so many centuries, there was so little discussion about that and it seemed to us as theatre makers that these were very important issues and thought maybe it wasn't correct or proper for David to be held like that, that security situation was sufficiently intense for him to be held," said Jamieson. Six performers take part in the 70 minute play, each taking turns playing the captor and detainee. Jamieson researched newspapers and video, documents obtained from the Freedom of Information Act and even interviews with Hicks' father and stepmother to provide insight to the story. These interviews were mixed with the performance to give a sense of realism and to counterbalance the show's acrobatics. David himself was banned from speaking about his ordeal inside Guantanamo for a year after his release, as part of a plea deal. Jamieson said it was important to balance the cruelty of physical and mental torture with the sensitivity of the case. He added that it was more important to earn the respect of the Hicks' family rather than any critical acclaim: "This show was made with David's father and David's father came to opening night and rehearsals. And of obviously the challenge of making a show that his mom and dad were going to see about someone that was being tortured.. the thought we were going to turn this into arty theatre or some piece of ballet or beautiful movement was much more terrifying that that would be their experience, rather than putting it in front of critics." But asked whether putting on the performance would be mistaken for glorifying the actions of a convicted terrorist, Jamieson defended his position: "I mean we are not at any point of the show arguing what David did or didn't do because we don't really feel like we're in a position to do that as a properly instigated legal team would be. What this show is about is, whatever he did, the slide into absolute darkness and absolute bestial horror, the moment you take those things (right to a fair trial) away, you take a look at history anywhere and the slide down into a terrible darkness is very steep and very sudden." The show has been seen in Australia and continental Europe, with the London performance ending Saturday (November 17). "Honour Bound" will be shown in New Zealand in 2008. Jamieson said he would "love" to show the political play in the United States but currently, there are no plans to show.

ITN Source | November 21, 2007

Tags:. .horror. .freedom. .documents. .dad. .australians