Rendition with Tragic Carpet

Sylvia is currently working as dramaturg/writer with Freda O’Byrne of Tragic Carpet on Rendition a fascinating and powerful new piece of visual theatre.

Rendition uses puppetry, soundscapes, object, shadow and visual theatre to explore the collusion between the CIA and the British Government; the juxtaposition between extreme vulnerability and absolute power; and the story of one man’s experience as the first suspect to be taken into the CIA detention programme.

This solo work in progress was first performed at The Hidden Door Festival in May 2017 and then at Manipulate Snapshots at the Traverse in February 2018. It sought to find ‘a way in’ to the excellent research resource that is The Rendition Project* and to visualise some of the information contained within its freely available databases. Professor Ruth Blakeley of Sheffield University acted as adviser to the project.

Find out more about the piece and forthcoming performances.

Extraordinary rendition is the transfer—without legal process—of a detainee to the custody of a foreign government for purposes of detention and interrogation.

Between 2001 and 2009 over 130 individuals have been held and tortured as part of the CIA’s detention and interrogation programme.