Millett told the inquiry: “Each and every one of the risks which eventuated at Grenfell Tower on that night were well known by many and ought to have been known by all.” Anyone who sees the play will grasp that manufacturers knew products were potentially risky and sold them anyway; that the London Fire Brigade was aware at a senior level of the risk of cladding fires but failed to plan for one in London and, crucially, that the British state was made acutely aware of the risks but prioritised deregulation over preventing a disaster. On Monday, the inquiry heard allegations from the bereaved and survivors of the 14 June 2017 fire that the government may be guilty of a “deliberate cover-up” over the dangers posed by combustible materials and that successive administrations were responsible for “collusion” with the construction industry. It heard MPs had written to the government 21 times, pressing it to tighten building regulations after Lakanal, without success. Governments had shown “an unbridled passion for deregulation”, one of the lawyers representing victims, Stephanie Barwise QC, told the inquiry.

Adel Chaoui, who lost four members of his family, said: “We knew after phase one of the inquiry [which ended in 2019] why the building went up in flames … There is criminal activity that could have been prosecuted there and then.” In their postscript to the play text, Richard Norton Taylor and Nicolas Kent point out that, “the government failed to implement any of the major recommendations made by the Inquiry after its first phase in 2019, including providing communal fire alarms in high-rise buildings and evacuation plans for the disabled. The Home Office in May 2022 said this would not ‘be proportionate.’"

The FPA

Its concessions are likely to be closely watched by tens of thousands of leaseholders trapped in unsellable flats built with similar construction methods to the Grenfell refurbishment that have now been found to breach building regulations.

Grenfell: System Failure is at the Playground Theatre, the Tabernacle, and the Marylebone Theatre to 26 March 2023In terrifying darkness en route, they stepped on dead bodies but made their way out. Saber, who stayed behind to help less able people, didn’t.

The follow-up play to the acclaimed Grenfell: Value Engineering, this new verbatim play is touring three West London venues: The Playground Theatre (18 February – 25 February), The Tabernacle (27 February – 12 March)and Marylebone Theatre (14 March – 26 March), bringing the production closer to the communities affected by the tragedy than previously possible. This second play, Grenfell: System Failure , focuses on the vital questions of how the cladding/insulation manufacturers, the London Fire Brigade, government regulators, and politicians could have averted this terrible fire, and how they failed the local community in the chaos of its aftermath. The playbe staged by three West London venues throughout 2023; the Playground Theatre (February 18– February 25), the Tabernacle (February 27 – March 12) and the Marylebone Theatre (March 14 – March 26).A piece of documentary theatre, based entirely on the words of those involved in the final phase of the Inquiry (which ended in November 2022), Grenfell: System Failureinterrogates why the testing regime failed to warn of the danger of installing inflammable materials, why manufacturers promoted such products with no regard to safety, why government regulations ignored the dangers and were not updated, and why politicians failed to ensure proper oversight.Through the testimonies of bereaved residents, it explores how they were failed by the London Fire Brigade on the night and abandoned by the local authority in the chaos of the fire’s aftermath. London's Playground Theatre has announced the complete cast and creative team for Grenfell System Failure: Scenes From The Inquiry, a follow-up production to 2021's Grenfell: Value Engineering. Whereas Value Engineering explored the events of the Grenfell tragedy, The Inquiry interrogates the inquiry that was conducted following the tragedy. The production willhaveset design by Miki Jablkowska and Matt Eagland, lighting design by Matt Eagland, sound and video design by Andy Graham, costume design by Carly Brownbridge, casting by Amy Ball with community liaison from Suresh Grover, and production photography by Beresford Hodge. The architect who wrote the report on the cladding fire that killed six people in Lakanal house in 2009 recalls telling this fire advisor that as things stood, “another fire like Lakanal was inevitable (with the) death toll likely to be ten-to twelve times… the Lakinal fire.” To which, according to the architect, the man upon whom our safety depends, replied with the words, “where’s the evidence? Show me the bodies." For this staging, which starts at the Playground Theatre, in walking distance of the derelict Grenfell Tower, we sit in hushed silence as the actors in front of us quietly expose the banality of corporate evil."

As Scotland Yard wait for the final report before moving towards potential criminal charges, any trials for offences ranging from corporate manslaughter to fraud may not start before 2025, more than seven years since the disaster, the Guardian understands. Nicolas Kent, Director and Co-editor, said: “ During the run of the previous play [Grenfell: Value Engineering] in October 2021, there was much pressure from the Grenfell community and audiences for us to complete the story of the final phase of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. He has collaborated with Nicolas Kent on eight verbatim plays on Trials and Public Inquiries: Half the Picture -the Scott Arms to Iraq Inquiry, The Colour of Justice -the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, Nuremberg, Justifying War - The Hutton Inquiry. All his theatre work has been published; much of it broadcast on BBC TV or Radio. He won a Time Out award in 1993 and an Olivier award in 2005. Grenfell had fire, we have floods’: Tenants take legal action against council to fix flood-hit homes

The second part of this verbatim theatre work based on the transcripts of the Grenfell Inquiry starts with a trigger warning. The audience is told that some of the evidence is so disturbing that it will be flagged in advance so that people can leave the auditorium if they choose. When we get the warning, just before the interval, no one does.