Oh Well Never Mind Bye

July 2005. In London, bombs are exploding. On the West Bank, a teenage boy is in a coma.

A suspected suicide bomber has been shot on a Tube train.

And in her newspaper's office, investigative reporter Charlotte is hard at work.

Her job: monitor the blog.

On the morning of 22 July 2005, Jean Charles de Menezes was shot by armed police as he sat on a tube train at Stockwell station. In the aftermath of his death, the media repeatedly printed and broadcast eyewitness reports claiming to have seen him vaulting over a ticket barrier and wearing a big heavy coat with wires trailing out of it. All of these reports turned out to be untrue - he was an innocent man whose only connection with terrorists was that he unknowingly lived downstairs from one. But by the time the truth was reported, the vast majority of the public were convinced of his guilt. How and why did this happen?

Steven Lally's incisive, thrilling and searingly comic new play, part of Upstart Theatre's 22nd July Project season of work commemorating the fourth anniversary of Jean Charles' death, explores the way the media report the news in a world dominated by spin, politics, PR, and caffeine.