DEEP CUT. To 4 April.
London.
DEEP CUT
by Philip Ralph.
Tricycle Theatre 269 Kilburn High Road NW6 7JR To 4 April 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Wed (Mar 18 & 25) 2pm.
Post-show Discussion 17, 24 March.
Runs 1hr 10 min No interval.
TICKETS 020 7328 -1000.
www.tricycle.co.uk
Review: Carole Woddis 11 March 2009.
Truth will out at the Trike.
Nick Kent’s tenure at the helm of the Tricycle Theatre will go down as one where theatre became, in part, the conscience of the nation. It’s now a truism that if you want to shine a light on some skulduggery hiding in the executive shadows, the Tricycle is where you may find it. Their drama-doc tribunals have become legendary.
Journalism, once known as the Fourth Estate, used to perform this function of holding over-weaning institutions to account.
But, if Philip Ralph’s Deep Cut is to be believed, on this occasion, “Journalism dropped the ball,” as Brian Cathcart, one of the characters and a journalist himself, puts it about the cover-up relating to the deaths of four young soldiers at the one-time Deep Cut barracks in Surrey. Journalists have allowed themselves to be persuaded by one police and judicial review after another. Deep Cut itself is no more, flattened, a few years after the events charted by Ralph’s play. Once again, evidence has been wiped off the map.
That’s how Ralph’s play gets you. Angry. Angry at the injustice, at the unanswered questions.
Deep Cut has not been journalism’s finest hour. But then nobody who could and should have brought the truth to light comes out of this episode with any degree of honour. Not the Army, not the police (who conducted several enquiries), not the judiciary, the MOD and certainly not the government who have prevaricated at every turn. The families of the dead soldiers have yet to have their young offspring’s untimely deaths explained, other than the official verdict: `self-inflicted’. That is, suicide; which given circumstances surrounding the running of the barracks the parents doubt.
What is exemplary about Ralph and Sherman Cymru’s production, directed with admirable restraint by Mick Gordon, is its quiet demeanour, told through first-hand accounts and focussing particularly around the parents of 18-year-old Cheryl James and their reaction to her death: initially unremitting grief, then gradually, slowly, undiminishing determination to find the truth and gain a Public Enquiry.
Thus far, this has been denied them. This just might be the leverage that shames the authorities into action. We can hope.
Des James: Ciaran McIntyre.
Doreen James: Rhian Morgan.
Brian Cathcart/Lieutenant Colonel Nigel Josling: Robert Bowman.
Nicholas Blake QC: Simon Molloy.
Frank Swann/Bruce George MP: Robert Blythe.
Jonesy: Rhian Blythe.
Director: Mick Gordon.
Designer: Igor Vasiljev.
Lighting: Andrew Jones.
Sound: Mike Furness.
Assistant director: Juliane Von Sivers.
Deep Cut was first performed at Sherman, Cardiff on 24 July 2008 and subsequently at the Edinburgh Fringe 2008.
2009-03-14 00:38:45