8, SC appears on stage, though we hear the videoed words of brother Neil repeated by Mansfield). The absence is the Lawrence family campaign, the supporters who packed the public gallery day after day and made it more difficult for either MacPherson or the police to wriggle as much as they might have hoped.
It would have been dramatically difficult to incorporate us into the production - but audience participation is not completely foreign to the theatre even if it is usually confined to pantomime.
Evidently the ending of the play itself has already been changed in response to criticism from campaigners. You never know, maybe my suggestion will get taken on board in the weeks to come! But whether they do or not -this is certainly a play that no reader should miss. • The Colour of Justice is transferring to The Theatre Royal, Stratford East, 15-27 February (Box office 0181 534 0310) and to the Victoria Palace Theatre from March 3 (Box office 0171 834 1317). It is also being made into a film by the BBC.
ЛАХТ ФОК •