CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED. To 20 December.
Bath.
CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED
by Alan Wilkins.
Ustinov Theatre (Bath Theatre Royal) To 20 December 2008.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Thu & Sat 2pm.
Runs 2hr 25min One interval.
TICKETS: 01225 448844.
www.theatreroyal.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 4 December.
Thrilling dissection of politics and power.
This may be a nearly-new play (director Lorne Campbell’s premier opened, with a different cast and production team, in April 2007 at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre) but Alan Wilkins’ title is old as the hills. The seven hills of Rome, that is. Two millennia ago, Rome and Carthage were superpowers at war three times (the Punic Wars; Carthage was of Phoenician descent).
Glib modern comparisons with Iraq are easy, but Wilkins’ play is far from glib, exploring the nature and impact of power. As in the best war films, it’s the more powerful for seeming (literally, here) to tread water in the early stages.
For the first act takes place in a public bath, Roman equivalent to wine-bars or tea-rooms, where deals are done and personal agendas flaunted with the insolence, careerism and sexually predatory behaviour through which policy-making winds its way before issuing in a spin. Confident Gregor and young Marcus, eager to climb the slippery slope of power, both shut up in the presence of Roman Leader Cato; though even he’s always looking for those out to destabilise him.
The play charts Gregor’s fall; brought about, in stages, through putting sexual pleasure before doing his duty. Marcus contrastingly rises, having the killer instinct in Carthage, while as political speechwriter he gives Cato his eponymous soundbite.
Campbell catches the contrast between the apparently aimless talk of the lesser characters and the energised purpose Cato brings with him, both in planning a deliberate war and in the aftermath, suggested and shown in its violence. Status moves with tidal force when John Stahl’s Cato strides on, easily subduing and commanding, aware of every political trick, consciously controlling others’ fears and hopes, exploring the limits of pitch and dynamic in his crowd-arousing war speech.
Paul Blair is excellent in confidence and abasement, Clifford Samuel charts the rise of a callously ambitious apparatchikand Andrew Scott-Ramsay finely contrasts innocence and resentment in the two roles as unobtainable objects of Gregor’s desire. All ensure that Wilkins play, which begins intriguingly, becomes thrillingly intense, showing how the roots of unnecessary war grow through ambition and political force.
Gregor: Paul Blair.
Marcus: Clifford Samuel.
David/Youth: Andrew Scott-Ramsay.
Cato: John Stahl.
Director: Lorne Campbell.
Designer: Lisa Sangster.
Lighting: Anselm Harrison.
Sound: Gina Hills.
2008-12-08 11:25:06