Post by TheatreDust on Dec 11, 2016 13:09:57 GMT
Another gem of a production at the Arcola. A fairly tough topic: patricide, but one handled quite ingeniously. The bulk of my feedback will sit inside spoiler tags in case, like me, you want to see this with little prior knowledge. If you plan to see it, then I encourage you NOT to click!
When you enter the auditorium, you are confronted by a steel cage containing a sullen, despondent young man...
Clever, thought-provoking and in places surprisingly funny. Excellent performances.
Despite the topic, I strongly recommend this one.
When you enter the auditorium, you are confronted by a steel cage containing a sullen, despondent young man...
{Spoiler - click to view}You are also greeted by a bearded friendly Canadian guy who I took to be the playwright, welcoming us and chatting to different members of the audience as we took our seats.
For virtually the whole show the whole auditorium is well lit, so the dynamic between audience and actors is shifted, removing the fourth wall entirely. There is (virtually) no audience participation but the whole thing has more of the feel of a public lecture rather than play.
At the start, the playwright launches into a little welcome - of the sort you occasionally get at a preview, so it felt natural. He explained that he pitched the concept of the play to the Arcola and after initial skepticism they accepted. He describes his fear and fascination to have been able to visit a prisoner currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his father.
He goes on to explain that after meeting him and hearing his story he thought it important that his voice be heard directly and so approached the Ministry of Justice to allow him to take part in the play. He describes at length the negotiation and security precautions required and then introduces us to Martin, the prisoner in the cage. The playwright ('T') then engages with Martin revealing more of his story, with T entering the cage and re-enacting their first meeting on a basketball court. By this point you've realised that the playwright is not just the playwright, but also a key performer. In the cage Martin is defensive and morose to the point of aggression.
T then switches things and explains that unfortunately, after his first visit to Martin, the MOJ changed the rules, deciding that Martin could not appear on stage but he could attend the performances. He says that, accordingly, Martin is sat elsewhere in the auditorium watching the show and that inside the cage the role of Martin is performed by Freddie, an actor who auditioned to play the part. At this point 'Martin' switches in an instant to become the slightly over-eager Freddie who is on his first job out of Rada (I know I shouldn't be impressed when actors do that instant switching between two hugely different characters, they are actors after all, but I still love to see it happen when it does!).
For the rest of the show, T continues to reveal Martin's story, his background and how he came to kill his father. This is delivered by reconstructing each of T's meetings with Martin in prison. At some points fairly gory 'crime scene' photographs were shown on the overhead monitors and we hear a graphic account of the killing. The Martin/Freddie character switches back and forth so we hear about T's conversations with Freddie about Martin as well as seeing Martin portrayed directly.
There is a great deal of subtlety in this play - the relationship between Martin and T is a finely balanced one with all sorts of nuances exposed within it. In a way, Martin's background is more straightforward: abusive father pushes him to the limit and he snaps.
The story regarding the real Martin's participation unwinds further and we are told he isn't actually sitting in the auditorium but was allowed to watch on a video link from prison.
I was perhaps an ideal audience member for this show - I didn't read any reviews in advance and I barely read what was on the Arcola's website, including not reading the cast list. I had seen a few tweets raving about the play and it was the strength of those (and my previous Arcola visits) that made me book.
After seeing the show I then did my research and discovered of course that the whole thing was fictional - a play originally by Uruguayan-French writer Sergio Bianco and subsequently translated into English. The playwright 'T' was played by Trevor White and Freddie/Martin by Alex Austin. Yes, undoubtedly, from the start I did know at some level that it couldn't have been completely 'real' as it was portrayed but the whole thing was done convincingly enough that I wasn't sure what was true and what wasn't, so I went with it - happily not knowing where the line of fiction began and ended. Maybe I find it easy to suspend disbelief (or maybe I'm just gullible...) but I loved being a bit disorientated by this.
For virtually the whole show the whole auditorium is well lit, so the dynamic between audience and actors is shifted, removing the fourth wall entirely. There is (virtually) no audience participation but the whole thing has more of the feel of a public lecture rather than play.
At the start, the playwright launches into a little welcome - of the sort you occasionally get at a preview, so it felt natural. He explained that he pitched the concept of the play to the Arcola and after initial skepticism they accepted. He describes his fear and fascination to have been able to visit a prisoner currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his father.
He goes on to explain that after meeting him and hearing his story he thought it important that his voice be heard directly and so approached the Ministry of Justice to allow him to take part in the play. He describes at length the negotiation and security precautions required and then introduces us to Martin, the prisoner in the cage. The playwright ('T') then engages with Martin revealing more of his story, with T entering the cage and re-enacting their first meeting on a basketball court. By this point you've realised that the playwright is not just the playwright, but also a key performer. In the cage Martin is defensive and morose to the point of aggression.
T then switches things and explains that unfortunately, after his first visit to Martin, the MOJ changed the rules, deciding that Martin could not appear on stage but he could attend the performances. He says that, accordingly, Martin is sat elsewhere in the auditorium watching the show and that inside the cage the role of Martin is performed by Freddie, an actor who auditioned to play the part. At this point 'Martin' switches in an instant to become the slightly over-eager Freddie who is on his first job out of Rada (I know I shouldn't be impressed when actors do that instant switching between two hugely different characters, they are actors after all, but I still love to see it happen when it does!).
For the rest of the show, T continues to reveal Martin's story, his background and how he came to kill his father. This is delivered by reconstructing each of T's meetings with Martin in prison. At some points fairly gory 'crime scene' photographs were shown on the overhead monitors and we hear a graphic account of the killing. The Martin/Freddie character switches back and forth so we hear about T's conversations with Freddie about Martin as well as seeing Martin portrayed directly.
There is a great deal of subtlety in this play - the relationship between Martin and T is a finely balanced one with all sorts of nuances exposed within it. In a way, Martin's background is more straightforward: abusive father pushes him to the limit and he snaps.
The story regarding the real Martin's participation unwinds further and we are told he isn't actually sitting in the auditorium but was allowed to watch on a video link from prison.
I was perhaps an ideal audience member for this show - I didn't read any reviews in advance and I barely read what was on the Arcola's website, including not reading the cast list. I had seen a few tweets raving about the play and it was the strength of those (and my previous Arcola visits) that made me book.
After seeing the show I then did my research and discovered of course that the whole thing was fictional - a play originally by Uruguayan-French writer Sergio Bianco and subsequently translated into English. The playwright 'T' was played by Trevor White and Freddie/Martin by Alex Austin. Yes, undoubtedly, from the start I did know at some level that it couldn't have been completely 'real' as it was portrayed but the whole thing was done convincingly enough that I wasn't sure what was true and what wasn't, so I went with it - happily not knowing where the line of fiction began and ended. Maybe I find it easy to suspend disbelief (or maybe I'm just gullible...) but I loved being a bit disorientated by this.
Clever, thought-provoking and in places surprisingly funny. Excellent performances.
Despite the topic, I strongly recommend this one.
