The British premiere of Emily Mann’s docudrama opens at Southwark Playhouse’s Main House for a four week run on 13 January 2012.

November 27th 1978: Dan White shot and killed Harvey Milk, the first openly gay American to hold elected office and George Moscone, mayor of San Francisco. May 21st 1979: Dan White was found not guilty of murder. Execution of Justice is the story of how and why it happened.

A cast of 20 perform Emily Mann's 1982 award-winning docudrama - a panoramic view of a time of upheaval and change, told in words taken from trial transcripts, interviews, reportage and the street. Moving in and out of the courtroom and backwards and forwards in time, Execution of Justice captures a city and its communities in crisis and the impact of loss.

Writer Emily Mann, is the multi-award winning Artistic Director and Playwright of the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, United States. Execution of Justice won Emily the Helen Hayes and Joseph Jefferson awards and it’s also been nominated for Drama Desk and Outer Circle awards. Her adaptation of The House of Bernarda Alba opens at the Almeida Theatre in January 2012.

Directed by Joss Bannathan, Artistic director of Present Moment, following his critically acclaimed production of The Provoked Wife at Greenwich Playhouse.

Lindsay Fraser presents this ground-breaking piece of verbatim theatre, coming just after producing the multi-award-winning Bound, by Bear Trap Theatre Company, and the acclaimed When Did You Last See My Mother? at Trafalgar Studios.

Execution of Justice is supported by Stonewall and The Harvey Milk Foundation.

Founded in 1989, Stonewall is renowned for its campaigning and lobbying towards equality in the UK. Stonewall works with a whole range of agencies to address the needs of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals in the wider community. The charity uses its power to fight against homophobia and offers support and advice to over 600 organisations.

The Harvey Milk Foundation (HMF) was established in 2010 as a non-profit charitable organization, and promotes Harvey Milk’s legacy through education and outreach around the world. Harvey Milk (1930-1978) was the first openly gay elected official in the United States when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He was assassinated in San Francisco’s City Hall in November 1978. The Foundation is led and founded by Harvey’s nephew, Stuart Milk, and Anne Kronenberg, Harvey’s campaign manager and political aide.

Stuart Milk is the guest speaker on the launch night, Thursday 12 January 2012.

“More than any other American writer of our time, the body of her work has demonstrated the importance of theatre to the psychic well-being and sanity of a society” - Athol Fugard

“One of our most urgently engaging, provocative and significant American Playwrights whose work bears witness to some of the most pressing moral issues of our time.” - Joyce Carol Oates

Box Office

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