On 15 October 2011, protest movement Occupy London makes camp outside St Paul's Cathedral. On 21 October 2011, a building that had kept open through floods, the Blitz and terrorist threats closes its doors. On 28 October, City of London initiates legal action against Occupy to begin removing them from outside the Cathedral...
Steve Waters' play Temple is a fictional account of these events, set in the heart of a very British crisis – a crisis of conscience, a crisis of authority and a crisis of faith.
Temple was premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in May 2015 in a production starring Simon Russell Beale, directed by Howard Davies.
'Asks big questions about the role of the church in the modern world... Waters' virtue is that he allows the audience the freedom to decide where it stands...the play leaves you debating the issues it so cogently raises' — Guardian
'A triumph... [Goes] behind the head-lines, and closed ecclesiastical doors, to produce a riveting drama that unpicks the institutional and psychological turmoil the [Occupy London] saga caused' — Daily Telegraph
'Waters takes real figures and real events and transforms them into a fictional account that plays like High Noon... 90 minutes of barbed politesse that never lets up... rich and ambiguous and funny and fundamental... quietly stunning... a marvellous show' — The Times
About the Author :
Steve Waters is a playwright whose plays include: The Last King of Scotland, adapted from the novel by Giles Foden (Sheffield Theatres, 2019); Limehouse (Donmar Warehouse, 2017); Temple (Donmar Warehouse, 2015); Why Can't We Live Together? (Menagerie Theatre/Soho/Theatre503, 2013); Europa, as co-author (Birmingham Repertory Theatre/Dresden State Theatre/Teatr Polski Bydgoszcz/Zagreb Youth Theatre, 2013); Ignorance/Jahiliyyah (Hampstead Downstairs, 2012); Little Platoons (Bush Theatre, 2011); The Contingency Plan (Bush Theatre, 2009; revived in a new version at Sheffield Theatres, 2022); Fast Labour (Hampstead, in association with West Yorkshire Playhouse, 2008); Out of Your Knowledge (Menagerie Theatre/ Pleasance, Edinburgh/East Anglian tour, 2006-8); World Music (Sheffield Crucible, 2003, and subsequent transfer to the Donmar Warehouse, 2004); The Unthinkable (Sheffield Crucible, 2004); After the Gods (Hampstead Theatre, 2002); and English Journeys (Hampstead Theatre, 1998).
His writing for television and radio includes Safe House (BBC4), The Air Gap, The Moderniser (BBC Radio 4), Scribblers and Bretton Woods (BBC Radio 3).
He ran the MPhil in Playwriting at Birmingham University between 2006 and 2011, and is now Professor of Scriptwriting at the University of East Anglia, where he convenes the MA in Creative Writing: Scriptwriting programme. He is the author of The Secret Life of Plays, published by Nick Hern Books.
Review :
'Asks big questions about the role of the church in the modern world... Waters’ virtue is that he allows the audience the freedom to decide where it stands...the play leaves you debating the issues it so cogently raises'
'A triumph... [Goes] behind the head-lines, and closed ecclesiastical doors, to produce a riveting drama that unpicks the institutional and psychological turmoil the [Occupy London] saga caused'
'Waters takes real figures and real events and transforms them into a fictional account that plays like High Noon... 90 minutes of barbed politesse that never lets up... rich and ambiguous and funny and fundamental... quietly stunning... a marvellous show'
