THE RIOTS

by Gillian Slovo (from spoken evidence)

The Riots was commissioned by Nicholas Kent at the Tricycle Theatre and was first performed there on 17 November 2011.

This play was developed from spoken evidence collected by Gillian Slovo after the London riots that took place in the summer of 2011. MOHAMED HAMMOUDAN was living with his family in a flat above the Carpetright store in Tottenham that was set on fire by rioters in the middle of the night. He manages to escape with his two young children but loses everything he owns. In this monologue, he describes the events of that night.

MOHAMED HAMMOUDAN

As we got out the front door, I looked to my right and the place was ablaze. You could feel the heat coming through, yeah? You could feel the heat. I got my two boys over [the road] and as I was going across (Breath.) one of the neighbours said ‘Could you take my son across as well?’ Because they were tryna get some other people out of, of, of th-this stairwell you see? They were coughing, they couldn’t get out. So I took him and waited and as I was waiting, I’m thinking the fire brigade are gonna come in a minute, yeah? The police are gonna be here in a minute. I was still thinking ‘This is gonna be OK. Yeah, it’s gonna be OK’. An’ then it it kin- it kinda felt really unsafe because you’ve got your children there y- and you’re y-y-you’re f- you’re kinda feeling really vulnerable, you haven’t got your mobile phone, you haven’t got – (Breath.) you haven’t got your wallet, you haven’t got anything. Everything you just left behind you an-an-and fleed out. And erm an’then you’ve got, you’ve got, it kinda felt really weird because you’ve got these people who’re just out of the building looking at their their their homes being burnt up and then other people with a sense of euphoria going on. It felt like, it felt like our building was like a trophy.

…

I started talking to, to some of these young people. I said to ’em, ‘This is not Aldis, this not McDonald’s, this is not JD Sports, this is a residential area where people live.’ Cos at the time other young people, where there was a erm wher- was a tyre shop nearby, yeah? Were throwing the tyres into the fire t-to make it fuel even more. And one of these th-th-this young woman who’s sitting in, in un-underneath a bus stop was saying to me ‘Well you’re just trying to prang me up?’ Wh-which means you know tryna make you feel guilty. And then there was thi-thi-this this smiling lad erm who said ‘Are you telling the truth? D-do people actually live in there?’ I said ‘Yes, people are living there above the shop. I’m gonna take you to other people who are just in the same situation as me and they’re gonna say – tell you exactly the same thing’ [and] he actually realised I am telling the truth. Yeah? And his immediate reaction was like ‘This has gone too far. It weren’t supposed to be like this.’ (Breath.) An’ I said to him ‘What d’you mean? “It weren’t supposed to be like this?”’ He se-he se- he said ‘It was supposed to be us and the police and the people who’ve been oppressing us’. So I said ‘Who? Who’s been oppressing you?’ An’ he said ‘Well the government, y’ow? The government has been oppressing us’. And then, then, then he said, which is quite ironic, (Laugh.) ’e goes ‘An I’ve gotta get up and fast tomorrow as well’. And I couldn’t make out whether he was just a part of the looting and rioting or he actually was a part of setting the whole building a-alight.