Theatre review: Jury Play | Look Back in Anger

THE idea of the jury as a “little parliament” of citizens, and as one of the foundations of our liberty, looms large in British and Scots law. Yet if a jury is a parliament, it’s one where the members are usually obliged to sit in silence, not even allowed to ask direct questions; and the idea that this system is no longer fit for purpose is the driving force behind Grid Iron’s latest show, co-produced with the Traverse Theatre. As the show opens, the audience enters a Traverse One transformed into the High Court of Edinburgh during a murder trial, with a magnificently benign and eccentric John Bett as the Judge, presiding in full robes. Fifteen members of the audience – a distinguished bunch, on Wednesday night, including Deirdre Brock MP and David Greig – are chosen by lot; and then empanelled as the jury, in the case of a horrible knife murder on a quiet Edinburgh street.