"Boiling Frogs" at the Southwark Playhouse looks at terrorism, civil liberties and the rise of the police state

A few years ago, I held hands with strangers in the middle of a main road in Glasgow and locked stares with the wall of policemen that had surrounded us. It was 2002 and we were among the millions of people across the world demonstrating against the impending war in Iraq. Our efforts were futile, of course, and once we had cooled down, we all returned to our schools, universities, and jobs to participate in the system we were rallying against.

The incident was brought to mind last week when I was watching Steven Bloomer’s Boiling Frogs at the Southwark Playhouse, a play inspired by the picnic protests in Parliament Square. The piece explores the correlation between terrorism, the loss of civil liberties and the rise of the police state. The action