”You see, what this country needs is a strong government to sort out the laws, bring order”
Election night 1979: the sus laws made it legal for police to stop and search anyone – purely on suspicion. Two detectives on the graveyard shift in an East London police station place bets on which party will win. A black man is picked up, accused of his wife’s murder. He is incensed, believing that he’ll be fodder for an incoming government keen to flex its law-and-order muscles.
A powerful, politicised cry against the still-current threat of institutional racism, Keeffe uncompromisingly depicts a corrupt world which looks all too familiar today. Set on the eve of the Thatcher victory, this new edition of Keeffe’s classic, harrowing play coincides with the general election of 2010, and asks what’s changed. Sus is a shocking and disturbing drama which protests against the rise of the right-wing, the infringement of civil liberties and the casual humiliation which the police inflict on their prisoners. Exploring the abuse of power and racism, Sus is a resonant, socially charged and powerful play, as relevant today as it was in 1979.
