Murmuring Judges, first performed in 1991, is a scathing attack on the British legal system, and the second of a trilogy of plays by David Hare examining Great Britain's most hallowed institutions.
Murmuring Judges takes a three-tiered view of a single instance of British "justice": the trial, conviction and appeal process of a dubiously guilty accomplice to a theft and kidnapping attack.
In each level, the injustices and insensitivities of the current system are highlighted as they are embodied by older proponents who cannot see past the traditions of British "justice".
Contextually, the play also underlines problems that the system were facing in the late 1980s, early 1990s, such as a rise in immigration and a heightening sense of terror, such as the IRA.
The pessimism is slightly relieved by the final image of the play, two young women, a barrister, Irina and a police officer, Sandra, who set to work on the arduous task of revolutionising the system.