SETTLING DUST. To 26 March.

London

SETTLING DUST
by Ciaran McConville

Union Theatre To 26 March 2005
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sun 5pm
Runs 2hr 20min One interval

TICKETS: 020 7261 9876
www.uniontheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 19 March

Increasingly tense political drama.This play is both complicated and complex. Set recently in strife-torn Sudan, its complications arise from rapid-fire references to the power-politics of the country's political geography at the start and a rush in revealing its dramaturgical hand towards the end. Yet both these factors contribute to the more satisfying complexities, which provide a new and well-considered variation on an old device while testing US/Euro-attitudes in the wider world.

The opening scene initially appears wilfully directed a conversation between a TV journalist and cameraman apparently happening in New York but staged with the former lying on the sanded floor of Jeremy Bidgood's set while his colleague moves behind the two rows of audience encircling the main acting area. By the interval this staging's been explained and the scene given a new context. By the end a still deeper cause has unfolded.

The action acquires tension as it proceeds. Ciaran McConville skilfully casts thriller-like suspicion round his characters before lighting on the least likely person's suspected motivation for the ultimately revealed debacle - the final scenes acquire genuine eeriness. Yet hints (such as a bare-foot police chief) are planted throughout.

While the opening scenes' speed is understandable when the full picture's been revealed, it encourages confusion early on. More clearly defined acting might help, which is not to deny the cast bring individuality to their roles. In particular, Rex Obano combines cautious authority as a police chief with the concerned care of a father, while Deborah Thomas is eloquently expressive as an apparent scion of laid-back late colonialism. Jonathan Bidgood's production is well-paced and uses the space inventively, without completely achieving the fluidity which would clinch the eventual solution.

Politically, the viewpoint's gloomy for international involvement; both problem and outcome derive from within Sudan. McConville quickly introduces romances emphasising the emotional link between the foreigners (though he underuses Juliette Goodman's aid-worker after her forceful first appearance). Outside efforts are ineffectual on the larger scale while European education and culture count for nothing or clash explosively with local commitments. A bitter message of near irrelevance for Old and New Worlds, sharply delivered.

Nathan Haine: Steven Beckingham
Harry Figarovsky: Ruben Crow
Eleanor Holme: Deborah Thomas
Ajing Jupour: Rex Obano
Maria Dupour: Jodie Scantlebury
Susan Fowler: Juliette Goodman

Director/Sound: Jonathan Bidgood
Designer: Jeremy Bidgood
Lighting: Steve Miller

2005-03-20 12:57:21