Theatre Review by Christina Manolescu</MARQUEE>
Despite the topic’s unpopularity—its untouchable status—(given the daily stomach-churning media footage, real-time devastation of war and its aftermath), Director, Guy Sprung, and the team at Infinitheatre have courageously grasped the nettle (or the trigger) in their decision to stage this piece.
With its explicit title—no ambiguity about where this play is heading: the ill-gotten spoils of war take centre stage, literally, as lead-in to the drama. We are treated to a frank exposé on what it’s essentially all about from this dramatic perspective: an open ‘smash and grab’ raid for oil, ‘black gold’, a commodity which on the world market has never traded more dearly than today.
But the play goes on to ask and attempts to answer, among other things, these essential questions: Who benefits from war, who loses, who pays the price?
Written and developed by up-and-coming playwright, Jason Maghanoy, the script doesn’t shrink from probing into the nastier corrupt and corrupting influences that nationally sanctioned, institutionalized brutality give rise to.
Brandon Coffey convincingly portrays Josh, a self-appointed chronicler who occupies his idle moments, recording video shots of daily barracks trivia, a weird species of souvenir to take back home.
Josh’s live self-projected video images blend eerily with actual military video footage: logs of authentic precision-bombing operations conducted by Western forces with the chillingly calm, focused oversight of a space launch or a humanitarian surgical intervention.
Despite all this record-keeping, ironically, the play’s centre of gravity tells quite another story: It’s more along the lines of the old adage: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. It’s this urgent imperative to muzzle and ‘cover up’ that speeds the play to its fierce climax and dénouement.
Omari Newton gives a strong energetic performance as Rocky, cornered in a lose-lose situation, literally—whether of fight or flight.
Ralph Prosper, as Trevor, pays a steep price for what he perceives and believes to be ‘honour’ and ‘duty.’
Fellow soldier, Karl Graboshas, plays Andy, haunted and hobbled by guilt.
Lucinda Davis, as Cole, the sole female military of the group—to whom this tour of duty is the essential stepping-stone to a better life—proves more than a match for her male cohorts in fatigues.
These five actors sustain the impact of a grim and sometimes gruesome piece of theatre. In the gritty blistering fog of war, they act out the choices on which their characters’ survival—perhaps also their salvation—depends.
According to whoever might be judging, some pass, others fail the test; all of them, in one way or the other, pay the price
Theatre Review by Christina Manolescu © 2007. Invisible Cities Network