HOW MANY MILES TO BASRA? To 21 October.

Leeds

HOW MANY MILES TO BASRA?
by Colin Teevan

West Yorkshire Playhouse (Courtyard Theatre) To 14 October 2006
Runs 2hr 25min One interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 7 October

Largely successful transition from small screen to bigger stage of a clearsighted political adventure.
Colin Teevan’s play is a mix of social documentary and old-style cinema adventure. Like The Wages of Fear, and many another film, it concerns a dangerous journey, in this case undertaken to prevent the murder of two family members of an Iraqi who has himself been mistakenly shot by British soldiers.

Apart from the inevitable comic squaddie of the old films (though a hired Iraqi driver provides mordant commentaries), the ingredients are all here in an operation made more dangerous by being unauthorised, where best-laid plans come unstuck in the face of events. As supplies and transport are lost, things become desperate, the desert threatening to swallow up any lives hostile locals don’t get first. The tight band is progressively reduced and the final survivors brought up against extremes, with only a lone voice left to tell the tale.

A familiar enough scenario, on which Teevan hangs his political content. There’s the relation between journalist and army, there’s the variety of British soldiers’ attitudes to their work, and to Iraqis. And, with the danger-journey told in retrospect, there’s the tension between a reporter made committed by her experiences and the smooth-mannered media people back at the office, reconciling the rhetoric of free expression with careerist awareness of what top broadcasting brass and government ministers will want.

This must have made it a fine TV play; on stage where so much less is provided and so much more demanded, the points-making agenda obtrudes though the adventure element comes over well enough in Ian Brown’s tactful production. Jeremy Daker’s sand-hued set works beautifully, a diagonal semi-screen both suggesting bomb-ruined buildings and providing a variety of locations. Nothing, though, can hide the tendentious nature of the back-in-Britain scenes.

Acting’s variable though there’s some strong individuality among the soldiers, while Flora Montgomery infuses her persistently professional yet humanly involved reporter with vigorous life and moral energy. And Kevork Malikyan gives the driver Malek, an academic out-of-work in this chaotic country, shrewd and indignant at what’s being done to his country, a wit and force that focus many of the play’s themes.

Sophie/Jeannie: Marianne Oldham
Ursula: Flora Montgomery
Freddie: Gareth Farr
Stewart: Matthew Flynn
Dangermouse: Gwilym Havard Davies
Geordie: Scott Turnbull
Malek: Kevork Malikyan
Tariq: Emilio Doorgasingh

Director: Ian Brown
Designer: Jeremy Daker
Lighting: Guy Hoare
Sound: Mic Pool
Movement: Faroque Khan
Assistant director: Sam Brown

2006-10-23 14:26:57