Besides, it was just too dangerous to talk to such people. "I would never have got away from the interview."
His play offers no solutions - "who can?" - but he suggests it puts the problems more clearly and in human terms. "I am not condoning terrorism but I do ask that, given the same set of circumstances, many of us would do
the same thing. What do you do if your relatives are boiled alive, your mother is shot or you can't go out of your house without bullets flying around?"
But he does include the tragic results of terrorism, the mangled victims. "I was amazed after talking to these people and my preconceptions were blown away. I think audiences will have the same reaction.
"But I don't want people to think it is a totally grim evening. It is very serious of course, very moving at times but some of it is funny. Even with the worst stories, when people recount them later they try to be entertaining. That is an unusual facet of human nature."
* TALKING to Terrorists is at the Liverpool Everyman, June 21-25.
