VICTORY AT THE DIRT PALACE.
Southampton
VICTORY AT THE DIRT PALACE
by Adriano Shaplin.
The Riot Group Tour to 1 March.
Runs: 1hr 15min No interval.
Review: Hazel Brown 25 February at the Nuffield, Southampton.
Biting satire on American-style television news coverage.
Set simply in a television studio, this piece introduces us to the two main characters, K Mann and her father, James Mann, as she vigorously combs his hair in preparation for his day in the news studio, before they go their separate ways to work.
For they are rival newsreaders on U.S. syndicated news channels, and have assumed the status of gurus and explainers of the American way of life to their viewing audience, in a way that would be deemed sickening in this country. As they sit at their news-desks, each with a sycophantic editor at their elbows, they play out their extreme rivalry, with little care for the events they are reporting, feeding off their own egos and agonising about their ratings figures.
The play is loosely based on King Lear, with Stephanie Viola playing the Cordelia role and Paul Schnabel as her hoary, Lear-like father. She is even warned to “mend your speech a little lest you mar your fortune” and the play ends hilariously with James using Lear’s storm speech when he ends up as a weather-man in a small provincial newsroom. Meantime, the Manns sidelined, the two editors become a double-headed team of news presenters.
Played at a furious pace, the action takes us on a roller-coaster ride through a September 11th style attack on the US that lasts just ten minutes, via the strange, sexual relationships between the toady editors and their anchors, and the sudden changes from private to public faces of the presenters as they gather their stories and then turn to present them to the television audience. All four performances are superb and chilling and you leave the theatre strongly questioning the impartiality of any news coverage.
K Mann: Stephanie Viola.
James Mann: Paul Schnabel.
Assistant 1: Adriano Shaplin.
Assistant 2: Drew Friedman.
Director: The Riot Group.
Graphic Design – Huw Jenkins.
2003-03-26 00:51:54