ZERO. To 29 November.

Tour.

ZERO
by Chris O’Connell.

Theatre Absolute Tour to 29 November 2008.
Runs 1hr 25min No interval.
Review: Alan Geary: 7 October 2008 at Lakeside Arts Centre.

All the Chris O’Connell trademarks are on display in this one.

All the Chris O’Connell trademarks are on display in this one - the almost unrelenting bleakness, the fury, and the four-letter words, not to mention the polemics, the non-linear narrative, the fractured and over-lapping dialogue, and the violence.

None of these elements are intrinsically bad but over eighty-five interval-free minutes they get a bit wearing.

And not only has the play been “work-shopped” - often bad news - but, apparently, it’s still a work in progress; it’s chopping and changing from one night to the next.

Zero is set two decades hence, but, like all the best science-fiction, its essential concerns are with the here and now. The so-called war on terror has intensified and become a never-ending and all-pervasive reality controlled by a universal Orwellian dictatorship of the rich. Alex, an interpreter at a torture camp - for some reason he’s called a “translator” - eventually decides to become a whistle-blower, with inevitable consequences for himself and Tom, his squaddy companion.

Directed by Matt Aston, it’s reasonably well acted by most of the cast of five. And it isn’t a clichèd, and one-sided anti-American diatribe; whilst presenting a particular view about the morality of torture - it’s against - it gives both sides of the argument. There are also fleeting reminders of ordinary everyday humanity along the way.

Major: Adeel Akhtar.
Tom: Daniel Hoffman-Gill.
Alex: Stephen Hudson.
Demissie: Damian Lynch.
Syrah: Kate Ambler.

Director: Matt Aston.
Designer: Laura McEwan.
Lighting: James Farncombe.
Soundscape: Andy Garbi.

2008-10-09 16:21:45