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.”
“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
Listen to BBC Radio Four's Front Row interview with Hydrocracker's Jem Wall and Blast Theory's Matt Adams.
Read Matt Adams' blog piece on why Hydrocracker and Blast Theory created OPERATION BLACK ANTLER.
OPERATION BLACK ANTLER was a co-production with Blast Theory.
A debate ran in parallel with the show, Complicity and the ethics of undercover security, where the issues from the show were debated by a panel before opening up to general discussion.
Commissioned by Brighton Festival & Ideas Test
Funded by Arts Council England National Lottery Grants, Dramatic Resources & Chalk Cliff Trust.
Production dates
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
