THE INTERROGATION. To 31 August.
Edinburgh - Fringe
THE INTERROGATION
by Richard Medrington.
Puppet State Theatre Company at Netherbow Theatre To 31 August 2003
4.30pm
Runs 1hr 10min No interval
TICKETS: 0131556 9579
Review: Timothy Ramsden 28 August
Political puppetry with more of the former than the latter.With a cut of the take being donated to Amnesty International, I'd not want to stop anyone going to this piece. It's based on the story Silviu Craciunas, a Rumanian dissident who eventually escaped to Brighton, only to be knocked down by a car in Brighton. This accident's aftermath usefully frames the action, the puppet Silviu waking in bed with Richard Medrington's face peering down at him as a local policeman asking questions about the collision.
But ingrained in Silviu's mind is a very different kind of questioning, one which Medrington goes on to supply, as he looms with quiet certainty over the puppet (the word, so often applied to non-independent regimes or individuals, has its own aptness here. Silviu struggles within the grip of state terror to keep his mind whole and his own).
Rumanian president Nicolai Ceaucescu (eventually overthrown and shot on Christmas Day) had some sympathy from the West for holding out against Soviet pressure. But he was a brutal dictator, oppressing an impoverished population, his secret police and inquisitor-torturers apparently believing a period of discomfort would usher in total socialist happiness, with paradise all round.
For most of The Interrogation we see Ceaucescu's terror-machine seeking to extract information from Silviu. It starts with physical punishment - in his guise as performer Medrington repeatedly veers to a stage-side contraption which winds up to send a wooden figure running in circles - a non-stop track based on techniques of breaking-in horses, to which the political prisoner was subjected.
But what really threatens Silviu is the psychological pressure of solitary silence, with only guards' shouts, to prevent him sleeping. Here the puppet begins to fantasize, trying desperately in conversations with himself to keep from uttering the names of fellow-dissidents.
It's scaring owing to the quiet intimacy of Medrington's threats to his Silviu puppet, in the severely restricted area of light on the small Netherbow stage. The speaking is always clear, though Medrington doesn't attempt much by way of characterisation. And there is a limited amount of puppeteering - the main puppet-figure spends much of his time in bed, often loomed over by the giant-seeming face of the operator.
But the mix of abstraction and individuality given by the mix of human and puppet makes the piece's political points forcefully. It's a very human story about very horrible history that's not been expunged yet from civilisation round the globe. And the existence of his interrogator's presence in Silviu's mind when faced by a local British bobby is a reminder of how many silent nightmares must remain in our modern world.
Performed: Richard Medrington
Designer: John Fardell, Alison Croft
Puppet design/kinetic scuplture: John Fardell
Doll design: Jennie Dear
Music: Dave Heath
2003-08-28 16:02:54