Research and Reading Lists

Unlike a play about past history, Guantanamo requires what someone on our production team dubbed “moving target dramaturgy.” In other words, the story of this play’s context is continually unfolding. Within the past two months, Congress has turned up the heat on the question of torture, and the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case on the constitutionality of military tribunals. Meanwhile no one can agree on whether new legislation voids the pending habeas corpus hearings of 186 detainees.

In the course of our research, we’ve found several valuable resources, including:

Guantánamo: The War on Human Rights by David Rose

Inside the Wire: A Military Intelligence Soldier's Eyewitness Account of Life in Guantanamo by Erik Saar and Viveca Novak

Guantánamo: What the World Should Know by Michael Ratner and Ellen Ray

News of the detainees can be found at:
http://cageprisoners.com/

This site also features interviews with playwright Victoria Brittain, and statements by several of the play’s characters (who of course are all real people whose actual words make up the play), including Lord Justice Johan Steyn, lawyer Gareth Peirce, and former detainee Moazzam Begg.

The Center for Constitutional Rights runs a “Guantánamo Action Center” at:
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/gac/

The CCR provides legal information and resources, and through their Guantánamo Reading Project you can download excerpts from the play.

The London Guardian Unlimited includes news on Guantánamo in their Special Reports section at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/0,13743,1000982,00.html

Many recent articles on U.S. policy are collected at:
http://www.truthout.org/

We’re finding that understanding the arguments between the balance of civil liberties and security encompasses more information than we get with the newspaper headlines.

Jennifer Shook
Dramaturg