MYTH, PROPAGANDA & DISASTER IN NAZI GERMANY AND CONTEMPORARY AMERICA. To 11

London

MYTH, PROPAGANDA & DISASTER IN NAZI GERMANY AND CONTEMPORARY AMERICA
by Stephen Sewell

Orange Tree Theatre To 11 December 2004
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat 4pm + 25 Nov 2.30pm
Post-show discussion 3 Dec
Runs 2hr 50min One interval

TICKETS: 020 8940 3633
www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 22 November

Neocon nightmare from down-under perspective.Political thrillers generally offer bad politics and don't thrill all that much. But Stephen Sewell taps into the debate on the Neo-conning of America with references to Kafka that give his play a theatrical frisson, delivering an above-the-routine impact.

Like playwright Stephen Sewell, protagonist Talbot Finch is Australian, with a non-tenured post at an American Ivy League university. His lecture linking trends in the country's politics with the processes underlining Hitler's Germany. Create a national myth (for America, the myth of our own righteousness), propagandise it and head for destruction.

His comparison draws repercussions amid supposed democracy and academic freedom, culminating in a scene where the Orange Tree's in-the-round stage is circumferenced by academics enjoying a shock-of-the-new art exhibition, while in the centre, tied to a chair, Finch suffers literal shocks from a cattle-prod.

Comparing the second term with the Third Reich might seem overdone; in fact it's underdeveloped. American independent documentary film Orwell Rolls in His Grave, coincidentally screening at the ICA during the Orange Tree run, makes the equivalence - about propaganda, especially with more analytical force.

Sewell gives his protagonist the statutory uneasy marriage, but makes his opponents too one-dimensional. A fellow Australian academic is both intellectually opportunistic and politically ready to snuggle-up to power, the university head is unthinkingly right-wing and ambitious. In this context, only Talbot's anonymous tormentor matches him in clarity; perhaps deliberately indeed, his assured beliefs and mix of ironic politeness with violent abuse is repulsively persuasive, ending up outmatches his victim's back-footed protestings.

David Rintoul brings a snarling absolutism of force and conviction David Rintoul to the part. The whole cast, including many Richmond regulars, is good. Sam Walters directs fluently, though I wish he'd avoided the overt emotionalism of Hollywood' acting. It affects even Julia Sandiford's initially fresh, direct student. And the end is weak (never finish on a plot-chasing news broadcast) and unconvincing. There's a clear implication a tycoon's Muslim daughter's been framed; in reality, while US airports were locked-in post 9/11, rich Saudis (several named Bin Laden) were flown home by special arrangement. Doubtless Talbot would recognise the class alliances here.

Talbot Finch: Jonathan Guy Lewis
Eve: Amanda Royle
Jack: Vincent Brimble
Amy/Therapist: Joanna Hole
Stan: Robert Benfield
Jill: Joan Moon
Max/Security Guard: Mike Sengelow
Marguerite: Julia Sandiford
Man: David Rintoul

Director: Sam Walters
Designer: Tim Meacock
Lighting: John Harris
Sound: Kevin Leach
Fight director: Richard Ryan
Assistant directors: Phoebe Barran, James Kyle Wilson

2004-11-28 12:44:16