'5/11' by Edward Kemp

The Tower’s Protest! Season continues in the week leading up to Guy Fawkes night with its second play, Edward Kemp’s incendiary Gunpowder Plot thriller 5/11. Through the echoes and patterns of the past, the play investigates the relationship between religious piety and acts of extreme violence. In times of adversity and persecution, can zealous devotion turn believers into barbarians capable of committing mass murder in the name of faith?

Both an action-packed political thriller and history brought to life, 5/11 is set against the backdrop of the religious divide between Catholics and Protestants, the last days of Elizabeth 1 and the Union between England and Scotland under James 1. It features a large cast, colourful costumes, a choir, sword-fights, a pageant, an execution and a live dodo.