TNT
Written by English playwright Simon Stephens, directed by German Sebastian Nübling of Munich Kammerspiele and designed by Ene-Liis Semper of the Estonian Teater NO99 as part of World Stages London, this international collaboration is full of surprises right from the start when the gentle crooning of a slender man dressed all in white gives way to a Scotland Yard interrogation.
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The severed head of a young woman, a prostitute, has been found washed up on the banks of the Thames and DI Ignatius Stone and DS Charlie Lee decide to follow the trail from London, to Germany to Estonia, uncovering corruption, vice and the darkest side of the sex industry as they hunt out the perpetrators of the crime. But it’s not the story that intrigues (that rather loses its way, along with Ferdy Roberts’ Charlie who inexplicably disappears) but the manner in which it’s told.
Nübling has his agile cast slipping through cracks in walls, flying through windows and arriving in suitcases – not to mention strapping on outsize dildos. It’s too long, often brutal, frequently over-indulgent and certainly not for the easily offended – but the sheer physicality of this surreal production, the committed performances (including Nicolas Tennant as the sweaty DI floundering in a foreign country where he doesn’t speak the language, a nimble, cross-dressing Risto Kübar and Steven Sharf’s unhinged German policeman) make this a flawed but fascinating nightmare of a journey.
Until 19th May | £12.50- £35.00 Lyric Hammersmith, King Street, W6 0QL Tube | Hammersmith lyric.co.uk
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