GUARDIANS till 23 October

London

GUARDIANS
by Peter Morris

Theatre 503 To 23 October 2005
Tue-Sat 8pm Sun 5pm
Runs 1hr 20min No interval

TICKETS: 020 7978 7040
www.theatre503.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 October

Whether pen, sword, or prison-lock is mightiest, there are human flaws all round.
These intertwined monologues search out back-stories for 2 real-life offcuts from the Iraq war’s aftermath. A public school, Oxbridge English journalist, with ambitions for ‘The Guardian’ but the mindset of the tabloid where he’s working, tells how mendacity, personal and professional, and experiences in London’s submerged gay S&M scene, lead him to fabricate pictures of British soldiers maltreating Iraquis, while a young American woman follows her road from West Virginia (painted as a US Hicksville Nowhere) to the likes of Abu Ghraib.

No names are mentioned and in giving his characters the titles ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ playwright Peter Morris points to their vulnerabilities. From this start-point, Morris tries the psycho-equivalent of explaining what happened on the Marie Celeste. The outcomes are as different as the characters. The journo’s story takes him through contempt, tedium (picture-caption writing seems the graveyard of intelligence) through the relief sought in S&M clubs, building along the way a power-sex drive turbo-charging career ambitions that haven’t learned from past experiences how faking it can have unforeseen consequences.

American Girl’s both less bright and wiser. Experience has taught her how things work. Again it leads through rough sexual experience, this time to taking orders and ending up in the firing-line of public opprobrium. MyAnna Buring’s rapid-fire speech contrasts Hywel John’s languid picture of self-righteous reasonableness. It’s a technical triumph, but one also filled with feeling. This is somebody who knows how low in the social hierarchy she is, defined by birthplace and poverty, yet who’s more than smart enough to understand the consequences. Even her job guarding Iraqui prisoners lowers her self-esteem, given what she knows about her prison-guard cousin back home.

Buring’s infallible performance is opposed by John’s more knowingly ironic character. He gives the role a sense of contemptuous superiority, though sometimes the overall pacing seems forced. The point that there are stories behind the stories-beneath-the-headlines is well-made, as is the perennial inevitability of class-based qualities and opportunities. In addition, Guardians offers, from Buring, a concentrated example of modern human tragedy in a most unlikely person.

English Boy: Hywel John
American Girl: MyAnna Buring

Director: Michael Longhurst
Designer: Mike Britton
Lighting: Sherry Coenen
Sound: Toby Knowles

2005-10-19 15:47:45