On Friday 26th February, the winning play of iceandfire and Amnesty International’s 2008 Protect the Human playwriting competition, ‘After the Accident’ by Oxford-based Julian Armitstead will be aired as BBC Radio 4’s Friday Play at 9pm. It will be available on the BBC iPlayer for the following week under the series title ‘ Friday Play ’.

A couple’s young daughter is killed in a head-on car crash. Four years later the parents summon the courage to meet the young lad responsible. Julian Armitstead’s powerful play sheds light on the Restorative Justice process. An impressive cast, Lia Williams, Russell Boulter and Jack O’Connell play the protagonists.

The Protect the Human competition was created by Amnesty International and iceandfire and sought to offer playwrights the opportunity to harness theatre’s ability to make real and relevant the impact of human rights on our everyday lives.

School teacher Julian was among more than 500 writers who submitted their plays over the two years the competition ran. Scripts came from across Europe, the USA and Africa with topics including the impact of domestic violence, sexual abuse in orphanages and the human cost of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

The competition has now evolved in to a new initiative, Everyone Has the Right, which is an ongoing script submission service for plays with human rights at their heart. The aim is to provide an arena for surprising and entertaining theatre exploring human rights stories.

iceandfire is a theatrical company which seeks to explore human rights stories through performance.

Review:
“The Protect the Human award is not about lecturing but about sowing the seeds for powerful theatre that grapples with necessary issues; it reminds people there are things we need to think about and talk about.” The Guardian on Protect the Human 2008