Published: 17 June 2010
by NORMANDIE HOCHE

ASK Ray Shell why his latest project is called ZIP and he replies: “ZIP is like the sound of a bullet through the air... and like the way gun and knife crime shuts off your life, zips it away.”  

Mr Shell, a respected stage and TV actor who is the artistic director of Kentish Town-based theatre company Giant Olive, got the idea for the project at the time of Stephen Lawrence’s murder in 1993. In this case, as in others, the killers were not found. Ray thought this absence of justice for the victims was worth exploring – but he also wanted to explore the mind of the murderers. 

A not-for-profit project supported by Camden Council and the Big Lottery Fund, ZIP was launched last month. 

Mr Shell has been conducting a series of weekend workshops with professional and non-professional actors above O’Reilly’s in Kentish Town. These will continue until July 6, when rehearsals for a new play devised by the participants will begin. The play will then be performed as part of the Camden Fringe Festival. 

Celebs such as actor Vas Blackwood have accepted an invitation to throw themselves into the project, which aims to get people thinking differently about the scourge of gun and knife crime in our city.