S-27 *** TNT
Inspired by the real life story of Nhem En, Sarah Grochala’s short new play (the inaugural winner of Amnesty International’s “Protect the Human Playwriting Competition”) changes the name and sex of the main protagonist and the identification of the security prison where he worked in Cambodia in the late 70’s, but the story it tells is pretty grim all the same.
Under the Khmer Rouge, teenage Nhem En’s job was to methodically photograph prisoners on arrival at Tuol Sleng (S-21) before they were tortured and killed. That’s just what fictional May has to do for an unspecified Organisation as, one after another, the captives enter the former classroom from which, for them, there is only one way out. Tagged with an S-27 label, a snivelling young boy, a belligerent former policeman who terrorised her father, a mother desperate to save her baby - even a cousin - pose in front of her lens as part of the terrible process. Anonymous in head to toe black, May methodically gets on with her task, forcing herself to banish all emotion to save her own skin and trying to retain her idealistic beliefs.
You can see the cracks showing in Pippa Nixon’s May as she battens down all vestiges of humanity, whilst her assistant (Brooke Kinsella’s June) is coldly, sadistically focussed on getting the job done.
Not all the detainees in Stephen Keyworth’s production look convincingly as though they’re staring death in the face, but Tom Reed’s angry, damaged Col is a visual manifestation of the filth and moral degradation which has enabled him to survive – so far – under a brutal, unforgiving regime.
Finborough, Finborough Road, SW10 9ED. Earl’s Court Tube (0844 847 1652) finboroughtheatre.co.uk till 6th July (£9 - £13)
No comments:
Post a Comment