Trials
'Everyone lived like we did! Well maybe not everyone, everyone. But… I wasn't any worse than anyone else.'
The near future. The climate emergency is gathering pace, and our generation is being judged.
The jurors are children. But are they delivering justice – or just taking revenge?
Dawn King's searing play The Trials was first performed at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus in January 2022, and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. It received its British premiere at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in August 2022, directed by Natalie Abrahami.
The Trials offers an exciting opportunity for theatre companies to address the climate emergency and intergenerational conflict, as the jury of 12 to 17-year-olds hold the stage alongside three adult defendants.
Dawn King is an award-winning writer for theatre, film and radio. Her other plays include Foxfinder (which won the Papatango New Writing Prize) and Ciphers.