OPERATION BLACK ANTLER (2016-19)

 

Go undercover to infiltrate an activist meeting. What will you do when the power is in your hands?

 

OPERATION BLACK ANTLER is an immersive theatre piece by critically-acclaimed immersive theatre company Hydrocracker and four-times BAFTA nominated artists' group Blast Theory that invite audiences to enter the murky world of undercover surveillance and question the morality of state-sanctioned spying.

You are given a new identity as part of a small team and invited to assume the role of an undercover officer at a protest meeting. You are given power and control. You have to choose how to exercise it in the name of security. From a first-hand perspective, you must make decisions and then reflect on the consequences of your decisions. What will you do when the power is in your hands? 

For 40 years British police officers have been undercover inside protest groups. Scandals such as Wikileaks, the Snowden affair and the revelations about the Special Demonstration Squad show that secret forces within the state have little respect for law. OPERATION BLACK ANTLER explores this moral corruption as well as the wider ethical question of when surveillance is justified.

What People Are Saying

 

“One of the most most gripping pieces of theatre you'll ever see.”

Manchester Evening News

“I really think this work should go down as a classic of the genre.”

— Rupert Thompson, Senior Programmer of Performance and Dance, Southbank Centre

Find out what other people said about OPERATION BLACK ANTLER

Find Out More

 

Production dates

May 2016

World Premiere at Brighton Festival

April 2019

Southbank Centre

June 2017

HOME Manchester

Creative Team
& Cast

Co-creators - Jem Wall & Richard Hahlo (Hydrocracker) and Matt Adams (Blast Theory)

Director - Matt Adams

Associate Director - Nathan Crossan-Smith

Design - Ju Rowe-Farr

Comms - Nick Tandavantiji

Della - Sarah Jayne-Butler

Jon, Police Handler - Richard Hahlo

Watts - Jamie Samuels

Mackenzie - Jem Wall

Gemma, Police Handler - Natasha Magigi

Ensemble Cast - local from each location

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Wild Justice (2014)