This year has been the year true crime has truly taken over theatre, too, with a dramatisation of the Raoul Moat saga in Manhunt; Punch, a portrayal of a lethal fist thrown outside a Nottingham pub; and London Road, based on the story of the Suffolk Strangler who brutally murdered five female sex workers in 2006.
I’ve been summoned for jury service twice now and find the idea of this being turned into a “fun night out” baffling. All of the trials I served on were minor indictments, but it was still a demanding and draining experience to potentially alter the course of someone’s life. While I was there, I met a fellow juror who’d served on a highly traumatic trial that took months to conclude. He had to go through extensive therapy afterwards to deal with the scarring evidence he’d witnessed. Hearing him speak about the trial and the PTSD he experienced was an eye-opener to just how upsetting the duty can be.
The Jury Experience is showing monthly at London’s Shaw Theatre (Photo: Fever Up)Sure, courtroom dramas have been around since Ancient Greek times, when they were staged dramatically in agoras and featured crowd participation. You could say that The Jury Experience is just entertainment – a bit of fun. You could even claim that productions like this help to demystify the justice system and show viewers how to construct a coherent defence.
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By conflating public duty with entertainment, we are entering dangerous territory where real trials aren’t taken seriously. What I saw in court – including other jurors doodling or reading the wrong page of evidence when asked – suggested not everyone was giving it their full attention. While some might switch off, others thrive off this sensationalised role – just look at the Reddit threads around popular cases, concocting elaborate theories and looking outside of the courtroom for evidence (a serious crime in itself). The Jury Experience only encourages this – and it’s part of a worrying “immersive” trend.
Just as we now understand the problematic nature of posing with tigers in Thailand, or visiting a “prison concept” bar in a bright orange jumpsuit, immersive jury experiences are due social suicide status, too. If we really must, let’s stick to watching justice play out on our TVs – before we get too deep into the fantasy.
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