MONSTERS To 30 May.
London.
MONSTERS
by Niklas Radstrom translated by Gabriella Berggren.
Arcola Theatre 27 Arcola Street E8 2DJ To 30 May 2009.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Sat 3pm.
Runs 1hr 10min No interval.
TICKETS: 020 7503 1646.
www.arcolatheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 May.
Well-acted demonstration.
Henning Mankell’s Wallander family have shown it can be grim up north, in Sweden. So Stockholm-born Niklas Radstrom, might find resonances in the story of Liverpool toddler James Bulger, abducted and killed in February 1993 by two 10-year old boys amidst a desolate scenography stretching from shopping centre to railway-line.
Both locations are mentioned by Radstrom, though neither is specifically shown. Yet several of the many TV screens dotted around the Arcola auditorium periodically have pictures of waving weeds. They’re a rare patch of colour in the stark, line-delineated area that, if it’s anywhere specific, is an interview room. Sometimes.
Actors appear to read the written-up transcripts of the interviews they’re enacting. Only the bored mannerisms of the pair responsible for the young child’s death, unaware of the immensity of what they’ve done, moves anywhere towards realism.
Otherwise this is a stern lesson in the didacticism that used to be earthed instantly by the term Brechtian. What it most clearly teaches is that the child – unnamed in clinically-precise official procedures – was James to his mother. ‘Jamie’ Bulger was apparently a press reinvention.
The multiple TV screens also repeat scenes being acted, or present varied urban images, reflecting the CCTV environment where the 38 pairs of eyes that attested to seeing the three boys, did not save James. It’s an equivocal point – the youngster was hurt and killed away from witnessing eyes, and there has been far more overt violence where crowds stood around – and cases of people intervening only to be killed themselves.
While there’s still interest in the material, the principle question inherent in Radstrom’s title – are monstrous actions necessarily carried out by ‘monsters’? – is expressed without being explored in any new depth. What would be fascinating is to show how two famous abductions – James Bulger and Madeleine McCann – have been treated differently owing to the parents’ social position.
In the stark abstraction which Christopher Haydon’s production aptly gives Monsters the Liverpool context is lost. Perhaps the most monstrous thing here is how, in the name of abstraction, everything becomes a politely middle-class sounding mix of accusation and reflection.
Cast: Lucy Ellinson, Sandy Grierson, Jeremy Killick, Victoria Pratt.
Director: Christopher Haydon.
Designer: Jon Bausor.
Lighting: Mark Howland.
Sound: Tom Hackley.
Video: Douglas O’Connell.
Assistant director: Amy Draper.
Associate designer: Jean Chan.
2009-05-25 12:14:56