Grenfell: System Failure: Scenes from the Inquiry

Grenfell: System Failure asks further vital questions raised by the Grenfell Tower Inquiry since the critically acclaimed 2021 play Grenfell: Value Engineering.

Based entirely on the words of those involved in the final phase of the Inquiry (which ended in November 2022), this new play interrogates why the testing regime failed to warn of the danger of installing inflammable materials, why manufacturers promoted such products with no regard to safety, why government regulations ignored the dangers and were not updated, and why politicians failed to ensure proper oversight. Through the testimonies of bereaved residents, it explores how they were failed by the London Fire Brigade on the night and abandoned by the Local Authority in the chaos of the fire’s aftermath.

This play is brought to the stage by the creative team responsible for Grenfell: Value Engineering at the Tabernacle, Birmingham Rep and on Channel 4, The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry - The Colour of Justice at the Tricycle Theatre, the National Theatre, in the West End and on BBC TV, and the Olivier Award-winning Saville Inquiry play, Bloody Sunday.

Richard Norton-Taylor is an editor, journalist and playwright, known for his work in documentary theatre. Several of his plays are based on transcripts of public enquiries, among them The Colour of Justice (Tricycle Theatre, 1999).