One Man Riot is an autobiographical monologue that reveals the roots of Jem Rolls' performance poetry and spoken word activism. Rolls' epiphany came during the 1990 Poll-Tax riot in London, where he was swept up by the crowd and found himself facing a line of riot police wielding clubs and shields. Instead of meeting violence with violence Rolls chose to hold up a mirror, in which each man on the line could see himself reflected.
As Rolls tells it, this was a tremendously empowering experience. As he portrays it, in this one-man tour-de-force, it's a breathless chase through the streets...