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Sell a Door Theatre Company Blue/Orange and By Order of Ignorance
Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall Directed by David Hutchinso
By Order of Ignorance Written and Directed by Robert Gilbert
Greenwich Playhouse
10 November – 6 December 2009
A review by James Fritz for EXTRA! EXTRA! There are some big issues being tackled at the Greenwich playhouse, which has given a platform to the emerging Sell A Door Theatre Company for an intriguing double bill of Joe Penhall’s award-winning Blue/Orange and the new play by Robert Gilbert, By Order of Ignorance. The first production is impressive. Penhall’s Blue/Orange is an intelligent and powerful piece of writing that wowed critics and award ceremonies alike upon its debut in 2000. The play focuses on a fight between two psychiatrists - the young and idealistic Bruce and his ambitious superior, Robert – over the best course of treatment for their patient, Christopher. Tackling issues of mental illness, institutional racism and the ethics of healthcare, it is a play that sets some bold targets in its sights and succeeds in hitting each of them superbly, and I am pleased to say that in this revival it has lost none of its punch. Three excellent performances from the leads allow Penhall’s script to delicately unfold, never letting the difficult subject matter slip into melodrama. As Christopher, Peter Muruako superbly inhabits a character of questionable mental health without ever giving the game away; the drama of the play relies on the audience remaining unsure of the true extent of Christopher’s illness, and Muruako leaves the audience guessing until the end. Tarl Caple and Pete Collis both give considered and engaging performances as the warring doctors, giving the play’s complex debate a very real and, very convincing voice. With Blue/Orange you are never quite sure where your loyalties lie, and this is as much a result of the actors’ efforts to avoid caricature as it is of Penhall’s script. The production elements are largely well handled – there is some intelligent direction here – but it is let down at times by some awkward staging and a tendency to over dramatise key moments in the text with a sudden influx of sound and lighting, an effect that proves off-putting and invasive rather than anything else. All in all, however, those involved should be congratulated for an exceptional piece of fringe theatre. The same, sadly, cannot be said for Sell A Door’s second offering. By Order Of Ignorance certainlyhas some noble ideals, with writer Robert Gilbert making an attempt to freshly examine the subject of terrorism, a dramatic theme that ranks amongst the most frequently covered of the last decade. Gilbert’s script takes an interesting approach, examining the topic through the eyes of three deliberately extreme character types: a gung-ho American Marine, a narcissistic television presenter and a mentally handicapped suicide bomber. The three characters find themselves embroiled in a botched terrorist attack in a holiday café, and as we learn a bit more about each of them we are encouraged to believe that these polarised personalities are not so different after all. It is a risky strategy, and one that unfortunately backfires, leaving us with a muddled and politically naïve piece of theatre. Despite occasional strong work from the cast, the characters are neither intelligently written enough to serve as effective allegories nor believable enough to drive an engrossing narrative. Whilst Gilbert – who also takes on directing duties - clearly has good intentions, his interpretation of a complicated situation is at times bewilderingly crass. The character of Mo – a British Muslim suffering from brain damage who has been brainwashed into carrying out a suicide attack by the unseen insurgent Rashim - serves as a clumsy analogy that startlingly oversimplifies a controversial issue, whilst the play’s climax, which sees two survivors pressured by a government suit into portraying Mo –apparently the bomber with a heart of gold – as a master of torture and violence, seemingly takes the uncomfortable view that eyewitness testimonies of hostages and victims of terrorism amount to nothing more than sensationalised propaganda. While the politics are obviously well-meaning, the execution here is ultimately too undisciplined for such weighty subject matter. With some more time and some more thought this concept has the potential to make a good piece of political theatre, but in its current form it makes a woolly and confused statement on a subject that requires so much more. On the whole, however, Sell A Door are a company that show a lot of promise. There is clearly a great deal of talent within their ranks, and I am certain that they will - with a little more care - produce some knockout material in the future.
Box office: 020 8858 9256 boxoffice@galleontheatre.co.uk
Greenwich Playhouse Ticket Prices: £12, £10 Concessions www.galleontheatre.co.uk
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