Press cutting: Blair to face trial by theatre over Iraq war

Tony Blair faces indictment for a crime of aggression against Iraq before departing as prime minister.

On a theatre stage, that is, using real lawyers and testimony from MPs, diplomats and other experts.

The ambitious project is from London's Tricycle theatre, which has staged edited verbatim accounts of events such as the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, the Bloody Sunday hearings and the Hutton inquiry. …

Julian Knowles will be defending Mr Blair. "I'm starting several paces behind the prosecution. Obviously the events of the last week have been pretty grisly and the audience at the Tricycle will probably be anti-war, but it is my role to show there is not a case in law," he said.

Against him will be Philippe Sands QC, professor of international law at UCL.

Witnesses … will testify this month, with the results edited into an April stage version by the Tricycle's regular collaborator, 'The Guardian' journalist Richard Norton-Taylor.

Mark Brown, 'The Guardian'