Play: I Wish to Die Singing: Voices from the Armenian Genocide

I realized from the title of the documentary drama currently playing at the Finborough Theatre in Earl's Court, that it was unlikely to be an evening of light entertainment, but was nonetheless taken aback by the almost overwhelming intensity of the production, which runs for ninety minutes without an interval.

Directed by Tommo Fowler and performed by a cast of seven playing multiple roles, I Wish to Die Singing, forms part of The Great War 100, an occasional series of plays about the First World War that the Finborough is presenting to commemorate the centenary.

Written by the Finborough's artistic director Neil McPherson, it's a moving and meticulously researched expose of the most shameful incident in Turkey's history, which began on the night of 24 April 1915, when some 250 Armenian intellectuals were rounded up, arrested and executed in Constantinople. Next the Armenians in the countryside were ordered to surrender their weapons and the men were taken to join forced labour battalions. Finally the women and children were marched away into the desert to be tortured and murdered.

By the following year, one and a half million Armenians had died.

The drama begins in a lighthearted fashion. Jilly Bond as the narrator - excellent as the voice of calm in a world of increasing madness - shows us slides of famous Armenians including Cher, Gregory Peck, Princess Diana (one sixty-fourth Armenian) and David Cameron, improbably a distant cousin of Kim Kardashian.

The horror starts when the survivors of the genocide give their witness statements. Finally the audience is reminded that the Turkish Government still refuses to acknowledge the genocide. When Pope Francis stated recently that `the first genocide of the twentieth century was that of the Armenians,' Turkey promptly recalled its ambassador to the Vatican, however the Turkish Ambassador to Paris has been reinstated in spite of the fact that President Francis Hollande recently attended a ceremony marking the hundredth anniversary of the massacre.

We are urged to sign the petition on change.org to recognize the genocide. After the overwheIming evidence presented in McPherson's play, I doubt that anybody would want (or dare) to refuse.

I Wish to Die Singing continues at the Finborough Theatre until 16 May.

For more information and to book tickets, see: www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk/productions/2015/i-wish-to-die-singing.php