A dystopian future. Decades of environmental damage and climate change have left not only raw materials scarce, but life at bearable temperatures a thing of the past. The lucky ones secure a place in one of the colonies formed deep in the cellars beneath the city, which offer shelter from the summer heat, the polluted air and the storms that have been costing lives for years.
The play
Corruption, capitalism and the political system have shown that humanity can no longer solve its own problems. The last hope is K.I.R.A., an AI-run government algorithm that makes sustainability the highest duty. Alongside the colonies, rewilding and the restructuring of the state, the judiciary has been rebuilt too. With resources this short, not everyone can be provided for. But the decision about who is euthanised is not taken by the AI. That is what the trials are for. Accused polluters are given the chance to defend their behaviour before a jury of twelve randomly chosen young people, the ones who suffer most under the present situation.
Guilty or innocent? Right or wrong? Is the law even just? The Trials follows this young jury through those questions, and offers a glimpse into moral depths we hope never to face in the flesh.
Dawn King is an award-winning writer for theatre, film, television and radio. The Trials premiered in January 2022 at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize; the British premiere followed in August 2022 at the Donmar Warehouse in London, directed by Natalie Abrahami.
Performed in German. Cast, production team and tour dates are listed on the German page.
2025
