On 15 April 1989, during the opening minutes of the FA Cup semi-final
between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool, 96 men, women and children died
in what remains the most serious tragedy in UK sporting history - the
Hillsborough Stadium disaster. Thousands more suffered physical injury
and long-term psychological harm. For almost thirty years the survivors
and the families of the dead had to campaign against the police,
government and media who blamed the supporters for the tragedy.
Eventually, in 2016 a second inquest ruled that the supporters were
unlawfully killed due to failures of the police and ambulance services.
In June 2017, six people were charged with manslaughter by gross
negligence, misconduct in public office and perverting the course of
justice.
Published to mark the 30th anniversary of the disaster, Truth Street
combines the eye-witness testimonies of the survivors at the second
inquest to create an epic-poem that is part oral history and part
documentary theatre. Inspired by the work of Charles Reznikoff and
Svetlana Alexietich, Truth Street was first performed in 2017 at the
Utter Lutonia festival and the Brighton Festival.
