A highjacked plane is heading towards a stadium in Germany in which 70,000 people are watching a football game. When attempts to divert it fail, a German fighter pilot called Major Lars Koch disobeys orders and shoots it down, killing all 164 on board in order to save the people in the stadium. Now he’s on trial for murder.

Chris New as Lars Koch and Sarah Malin as the Prosecuting Counsel in Terror. Photograph courtesy of Brisbane Festival

Koch doesn’t dispute the facts of what happened but stands by his decision. At that time, the federal constitutional court had decreed that it was wrong to kill innocent people to save other innocent lives. So technically Koch has broken the law. But was he morally justified in what he did or not? After hearing lawyers for the defence and the prosecution, it’s up to the audience to decide by casting a vote.

Written by German lawyer and author Ferdinand von Schirach, Terror premiered in Berlin in 2015 and has since been seen in seven countries. An English language version, translated by David Tushingham, premiered at London’s Lyric Hammersmith in June directed by Sean...