About the Play:

Gladiator Games is a full-length drama by Tanika Gupta. Gruelling account of the murder of a young Asian, by his white racist cellmate in a Young Offenders Institution, using a mix of verbatim theatre and imaginative reconstruction. The title refers to the alleged gladiator-style games initiated by prison officers which involved placing inmates of different ethnicities in cells together.

Gladiator Games looks at the killing in prison of a teenager by his racist cell mate. On the eve of his release from Feltham Young Offenders Institute, Zahid Mubarek, a young British Asian man, was attacked by psychopath Robert Stewart. One week later he died of his injuries. Stewart, a known violent racist with a history of mental illness, was transferred by prison officers to Zahid's cell and attacked him in his sleep on the eve of his release. How was this allowed to happen? This play traces the Mubarek family's pursuit of the truth. Based on evidence given to the Zahid Mubarek Inquiry and interviews taken, one of Britain's leading writers examines the events and the subsequent incompetence of the official response to Zahid Mubarek's death. Gladiator Games is a powerful political statement about prison practices and the way our society treats young offenders.

Gladiator Games premiered in 2005 at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield, before transferring to the Theatre Royal Stratford East in London where it was restaged in 2006.

Cast: 1 female, 4 male

What people say:

"Part of a growing tradition of verbatim theatre doing the job of investigative journalism better than journalists themselves." — The Guardian

"The play's poignancy and its political power, are a fitting tribute to a murdered teenager." — Time Out

"Tanika Gupta's powerful dramatisation…makes a strong case that Mr Mubarek's death was caused by sins of commission as well as omission." — Evening Standard

"...a work of real political importance; painful to witness, but entirely essential." — The Times

"...dismayingly accurate." — The Daily Telegraph

"Tanika Gupta's powerful dramatisation…makes a strong case that Mr Mubarek's death was caused by sins of commission as well as omission." — Evening Standard

"...a work of real political importance; painful to witness, but entirely essential." — The Times

About the Playwright:

Tanika Gupta is an English playwright of Bengali descent. Apart from her work for the theatre, she has also written scripts for television and radio plays.