20:00, Wed 20th – Sat 23rd November 2013 at Homerton Auditorium
Michaelmas Week 6

How could it happen?

Doesn't God hear our agony?

During World War 2 in Auschwitz Concentration Camp a group of male prisoners waiting to discover their faith of either hard labour or death decide to put God on Trial. The charge is that God has broken his covenant he made with the Jewish people by allowing the Nazis to commit Genocide. With the knowledge that their death is almost certainly imminent, the prisoners put forward their arguments, raising fundamental questions concerning religion, morality and the purpose of human existence. The journey to a verdict leads us through the Jewish faith and the personal experiences of the prisoners. Preconceptions are consistently challenged by each argument presented. This is a play where reason and emotion collide in an atmosphere of desperation.

God on Trial written by Frank Cottrell Boyce was originally aired on television and has now been adapted into a play. This is an intense, dramatic play that promises to be a challenging and powerful piece of theatre.

Reviews for God on Trial when aired:

"The nature and existence of God, the nature and necessity of faith, the role humans occupy in the universe and, most important, how to reconcile the idea of a loving deity with the ongoing tragedy of war and genocide. They are big topics addressed with a striking lack of sentimentality, quite a feat considering the setting. You will weep, but you will also think." Los Angeles Times

"It asks a profound and relevant question: how could a benign and loving God allow the Holocaust to happen?" Telegraph

"Surely the most beautiful thing ever written" The Guardian