The Riots will be a distillation of 40 hour-long interviews with people from the community directly involved in the riots

After the riots comes the drama. The Tricycle theatre in London is responding to the lack of an official public inquiry into the causes of last month's chaos by mounting its own theatrical inquiry.

The theatre's artistic director, Nicolas Kent, said it wanted to use testimony to analyse what happened and why. "We hope this play will be positive," he said. "We are not in a blame game here. What we are trying to do is to look for the lessons than can be learned into making a more equitable and harmonious society."

The Kilburn-based Tricycle consistently punches above its small size and has become known as something of a powerhouse for political theatre and verbatim inquiry plays.

Now it has the summer riots in its sights in a new play being directed by Kent in what will be his last season in post – the Guardian revealed in July that Kent was standing down after 27 years due to spending cuts. He is going out with both a riot and a bang as the theatre also announced a two-part investigation into the history of the nuclear bomb as his final production next spring.

Kent said the theatre had been planning to stage the nuclear bomb project this winter but some plays did not come in and it was forced to postpone.

"I was going up to Edinburgh to find a show to put in and then the riots happened," said Kent. "When the government said they weren't going to conduct a public inquiry it just seemed an obvious thing for us to do, to try to find out the reasons for the riots, what was behind them, how were people affected."

The final work, called The Riots, will be a distillation of 40 hour-long interviews by writer Gillian Slovo with people directly involved in the riots. That will include community workers, lawyers, social workers, police officers such as Sir Hugh Orde, head of the Association of Chief Police Officers, and politicians such as Diane Abbott, Simon Hughes and John McDonnell. Slovo has also talked to people whose homes were burnt out and the theatre has one rioter speaking anonymously.

They hope to get more testimony through a freephone number 0800 652 7416 – a suggestion from Michael Cashman and Neil Kinnock, said Kent.

Kent said the theatre had no idea what conclusions would be arrived at and planned to have audience debate after some performances.

As well as testimony, the plan was to use Twitter posts and film, although staged rioting will be unlikely. "I don't think we'll have any rioting or looting on our stage. I hope not," said Kent . "We didn't have any rioting here in Kilburn and we have no plans to introduce it."

But he said it would be dramatic. "People have given us some extraordinary interviews, they are completely compelling."

Kent announced in July that he was stepping down as a result of cuts in public subsidy to his theatre. "Since I announced I was resigning I've had letters from MPs and members of the House of Lords all saying they really regret my going and being nice, but mainly saying they have learnt a lot by coming to the Tricycle and watching the inquiry plays or political plays we have been doing," he said. Kent said he hoped to still be involved with the theatre after his departure next April and there was a desire from the board that its political work continue.

He will leave an organisation in strong artistic health. The Tricycle's production of The 39 Steps continues to be a success and it last week transferred its production of Arthur Miller's Broken Glass to the West End with the Guardian's Michael Billington giving it a five-star review.

After The Riots, which runs from 17 November to 10 December, there will be light relief with the return of Marie Jones' Stones in His Pockets, another successful play which began life at the Tricycle. Then the Tricycle will go nuclear by staging a season of plays that offer a political history of the nuclear bomb and its proliferation from 1940 to the present day.

Kent, 66, said he stood by his decision to leave. "Since I made the decision two people have come to the rescue with quite a lot of money, which will tide us through the next three years," he said. "It won't replace all the money we've lost but it will help. I am hoping very much the new person will find it is easier than it looked when I made my decision."