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After street riots put Lozells on the map for all the wrong reasons in October 2005, residents of a community just like many others across the UK found themselves unexpectedly in the spotlight.

What became known as the Lozells Riots branded the area as a hotspot for the explosion of racial tensions amongst ethnic minorities, resulting in murder. This became an unwelcome burden on the community's shoulders.

Just four years on, a controversial new play inspired by the events premieres on February 12th 2009 at Birmingham Repertory Theatre. These Four Streets was commissioned by the theatre as a collaborative piece by six female writers, and has been met with wide public interest and speculation.

The play is a collaboration

Fresh memories

The play takes the Lozells riots as a source of inspiration to explore the power of rumour and the media, and how a traumatised community strives to repair itself in the wake of such violence.

With memories of the riots so fresh in people's minds, I met up with two of the writers and one actor from These Four Streets, between rehearsals, to find out how they were approaching such a sensitive issue, and what they hoped to achieve.

Award winning talent

Amber Lone is a well established playwright, and this is her third collaboration with Birmingham Rep. Her past works deal with issues such as generational division and the path towards religious radicalisation in British Asian families, so she is no stranger to controversy.

In 2006, playwright Lorna French won the prestigious Alfred Fagon Award for Best New Playwright of Caribbean or African Descent. She has conducted drama workshops across the country, including at the Royal Court Theatre.

Elexi Walker spent her formative years in Birmingham, living part of her life in Lozells. Since graduating from Birmingham Theatre School in 2006, she has performed for radio, film and on stage.

Playwright Amber Lone

At just 26 years old, she has already performed across the UK in a variety of productions, from Shakespeare to experimental theatre. This is her first stage appearance at Birmingham Rep.

"There is a lot of hype around the play, many are expecting to see a retelling of the Lozells Riots. How do you feel about this?"

Elexi: "It's sold pretty quick! Everyone's been asking, 'So, what's it about?' When I tell them it's inspired by Lozells, they say, 'So, there's gonna be proper violence?' Some people have asked me if we're going to re-enact the rape!"

Lorna: "That's not what we're doing at all, so it's going to be really interesting to see how people react to it."

Amber: "The story is completely fictional, just inspired by what happened in Lozells. That was just the root of it. This work is not verbatim, it's not documentary and we didn't want anyone to call it a docudrama."

"What is your opinion on how Lozells was portrayed in the media?"

Amber: "The community was labelled as a certain kind of place by the media, they made a lot of so-called 'racial divisions'. It felt like they were saying, 'It's not the white communities that are doing this to the ethnics, they're fighting amongst themselves, that's what they're like.' "

"During the first week, I cried."

Elexi: "I lived in Lozells for a bit, and my grandma lives on one of the roads featured in the play. Growing up there, there were never any problems. My grandma's neighbours were Sikh, and they'd knock on the door with meals for her to eat or put in the fridge.

"When I lived on Lozells Road, it seemed like there was no tension, just young people being young people. Really and truly, if you didn't look for trouble, it wouldn't find you, it's just like everywhere else. I think people find it easy to say, 'Oh, black people this, Asian people that', of people from areas that have a reputation, especially when they have never spent any time there."

The disturbances in Lozells were quickly dubbed as 'race riots' by some elements of the media, and many different theories have arisen as to why they came about. Some called it a turf war, others claimed it was because certain members of the Afro Caribbean community thought the Asian population of Lozells were treated better by local funding authorities.

"What do you think was at the root of the riots?"

Amber: "Tensions exist in places like Lozells because people are sick of being labelled. They are doing really well in schools that aren't failing anymore, and they have to put up with problems that other areas don't have.

"There's a lack of services, a lack of facilities, a lack of families, a lack of opportunities for school leavers and those of working age.

"That's to do with failure from the outside, and a lack of investment. Inner city areas like Lozells get labelled, and this was termed a race riot, but there are lots of other reasons why people might get fed up, and want to lash out.

These Four Streets

"Lozells is a residential area, just like Moseley, or anywhere else, it's full of families and people going about their daily business. This violence happened to occur in a particular place, and I think certain elements on the media jumped on that, and bent it to their own agendas."

"When you were writing These Four Streets, was it difficult to bring six writers' work together?"

Lorna: "It was really collaborative actually, we all researched individually, then came back together and worked on the characters. The challenge was to structure such a broad piece, with so many voices, and build a narrative thread."

Amber: "The Rep wanted more than one writer on the project, so that it would encapsulate a variety of voices. We had to work together to tell the story, and seeing as the piece is about bridging divides, it was quite fitting.

"All the writers come from different cultural backgrounds, but that doesn't mean that each of us was intent on telling 'our side' of the story. We all saw the riots through different eyes, because we are different people, and we wanted to bring that to the piece."

"The resulting play was directed by Gwenda Hughes, what did she bring to the piece?"

Elexi: "What's written on the page is really episodic, I've never worked with such a piece! I think Gwenda's job was to get some kind of cohesion and emotional narrative running through it, so that those watching it can engage with all the issues that we want to put across. Gwenda's worked magic really, we call her Gwenda the Good!"

"How do you feel about taking on such a controversial subject, so soon after the events inspiring the play occurred?"

Elexi: "I absolutely love the play. During the first week, I had a bit of a cry, because I was worried people would find it offensive. I know it's ficitonalised, but it's so fresh, it's an open wound that hasn't quite healed.

"The tension is there as soon as it starts, it's not difficult to get into a scene because it's written so naturalistically. The script is really economical with words, there's no messing around."

"I googled everyone!"

There are over 30 characters in the play, and only a small company of six actors. The focus switches between ordinary people's lives, as they strive to cope with the aftermath of what happened in their community.听

"As an actor, was it a challenge to play so many different roles?"

Elexi: "I play seven characters, but it's not as bad as you'd think, it's not like I'm jumping between skins, not rushed. The scenes are so discreet, you know you might revisit a character again, or you might not, you know what's coming next, as an actor.

"It's always a challenge to put yourself in a place and become someone else, but you get used to it. It's my job after all, I'm paid to do this!"

"Did you get to read the whole script before taking on the piece?"

"Because I'm nosy, when we did the audition I printed off the whole script and had a look. I didn't know who I was going to be working with, so I googled everyone to find out who they were.

"I'm a bit new to this, so I don't know anyone. I had to get on the internet and do a bit of snooping! I guess everyone else was doing the same, out of curiosity, but luckily for me my name had been misspelled, so they'd be searching for Elky Walker!"

"Lozells is a place like any other."

Increasing rumours

The riots in Lozells were sparked by a call to local police, claiming that a young black girl had been raped by the Asian owner of a shop, Beauty Queen Cosmetics, in revenge for attempting to steal a wig.

Despite the police finding no evidence to support the claim, and the alleged victim never coming forward, over the following days, the rumours spread across Lozells. They increased in severity, fanned by pirate radio and community webistes.

By the end of the week, at the height of the riots, the UK鈥檚 most popular Afro Caribbean newspaper ran with a headline alleging that 19 assailants had been involved in the still unsubstantiated incident. A week later, the headline was retracted, and the paper published a full apology.

Although the unrest centred around a silent, and to this day invisible woman, whose existence has never been proven, it was men who spoke out on either side of the riot cordon, and men who discussed the events in the media.

"These Four Streets is written by six women, and features very strong female characters. What do you think this brings to the piece?"

Amber: "I don't think we consciously centred the play around women. We didn't actively say, 'We're not going to have any men in the piece,' but I think we found something really interesting in the female experience.

"During the events in Lozells, the female voice wasn't really present, it was mostly men who spoke out, and tried to lead the community. Women always pick up the pieces and carry on. We naturally try to sort things out, we carry a lot, wherever disturbances happen world wide.

Elexi Walker

"Women are kind of ignored by the media too. It was women who marched in the protests, but men who led them and spoke out. We got a sense from our research that there were a lot of women out on the streets saying, 'We don't want this'."

Elexi: "During the first read through, I felt a very strong maternal force. There were some worries about whether it would be balanced along gender or racial lines. I think it makes sense to have such strong women, regardless of their race. The older men who appear with a political voice often aren't the people dealing with things at all, they don't go about it in a pragmatic way."

"What do you hope audiences will take away from These Four Streets?"

Amber: "This thing happened, and afterwards, people still lived together side by side. It's a place like any other, it's not a war zone, as some people depicted it. These Four Streets is about good people who have to live with what happened, and find a way to continue in that place afterwards."

Elexi: "the characters, living and working together, are like a microcosm of the community in Lozells. There's a little bit of tension between us, but then it resolves and there are things to get on with. We've got lives to live and we don't have time to be fighting. That's really what the play in itself is about."

Lorna: "We want to show, through These Four Streets, that there's a shared humanity within this community, with problems just like anywhere else. We wanted to tell the stories of people who were living there."

"During the first week, I cried."

Amber: "It's just one play, inspired by something real that happened. It's exciting when theatre engages with normal people. it鈥檚 a story of real lives,听and I hope that people will be open to it. This piece will not say everything that needs to be said, it's just a way of exploring difficult issues." 听听听

These Four Streets runs at The Door in Birmingham Repertory Theatre from February 12th to 28th, 2009. Following a performance at Wolverhampton Arena on March 2nd, the play will tour schools and universities throughout the West Midlands and Shropshire.

For more information on times and ticket prices, click on the link below.