Guantanamo play opens to critical acclaim in US

A stage portrayal of the desperate lives endured by detainees at Guantanamo Bay opened to acclaim in the US today.

Both the New York Times and the Washington Post newspapers from the cities which took direct hits on September 11 praised the drama, which follows the lives of the British captives.

Guantanamo: Honour Bound to Defend Freedom won plaudits in Britain before crossing the Atlantic where directors may have feared a frostier reception.

But one critic called the play “deeply moving” while another said, “you may find your mind-set profoundly challenged”.

The political drama follows the plights of al-Harith, Bisher al-Rawi, Moazzam Begg and Rhuhel Ahmed.

“Even if you are inclined to chalk up some level of governmental overreaction as the inevitable product of this unorthodox war, you will find it difficult to dismiss the evidence of ‘Guantanamo’ with a stony salute to the interests of truth, justice and the American way,” wrote the Washington Post.

“It’s impossible to give the cold shoulder to the suffering of the falsely accused.”

The Post cites the lines of one American character who asks: “Surely, they could figure out which ones are dangerous ?” and writes: “Guantanamo’s worthy contribution is to compel us all to wonder the same thing.”

Guantanamo was first staged at The Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, north west London, and was compiled from transcripts and interviews of Britons already released.

Three of the men, Asif Iqbal, Shafiq Rasul, and Mr Ahmed, recently helped human rights campaigners produce a lengthy report on the conditions in which they were held at the US naval base detention centre on Cuba.

They told of sleep-deprivation, lengthy interrogations, solitary confinement and beatings.

The play was created “from spoken evidence” by Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo and directed by Nicolas Kent and Sacha Wares.

The New York Times finds sympathy for Azmat Begg, the father of Moazzam, who has repeatedly appealed for his son to be freed to face trial in Britain.

Released inmates have suggested that Mr Begg’s mental condition has declined over the past two years as he has been held in solitary confinement.

“The tone of Mr Begg (Harsh Nayyar), the father of Moazzam (Aasif Mandvi), a young man taken prisoner in Afghanistan, where he was setting up a water distribution system is simply sad, aggrieved and uncomprehending,” the Times wrote.

The only criticism was that the play, at times, “feels more like a sermon for the converted than a drama”.

But the paper adds: “What pulls hardest at the emotions are the detailed epistolary accounts of life in prison and the letters’ change in tone from willed optimism to abjectness to, in one harrowing case, something approaching madness.”

The newspaper writes of the portrayal of detainees: “They have the leaden immobility of people for whom waiting has become an existential condition.

“When the performance ends, you may so share their claustrophobia that you wind up gratefully gulping down air as soon as you hit the sidewalk.”