KINDERTRANSPORT

This play written by Diane Samuels was first performed on stage in 1993. Her aim was 'to probe the inner life where memory is shaped by trauma, history meets story, in order to gain psychological and emotional insight into how a damaged psyche can survive, possibly recover, and whether there might ever be an opportunity to thrive.'
     She tells the story of a child who is sent to Britain for safe keeping by her Jewish parents the year before the second world war started, and before the start of mass genocide. Over 10,000 children were transported abroad. Many never saw their parents again.
     In Samuel's play the child, Eva, adapts to her new family who embrace her. With no news from her parents for years they assume they have been killed, and Eva settles into life in Manchester. She has nightmares about the Rat catcher, a children's story about the Pied Piper of Hamlin, abducting children.
       Eight years later, Efa's mother turns up having survived the holocaust. But Efa doesn't want to go with her to start a new life in the States. The mother leaves devastated. This for me was the most moving part of the play. Imagine the dilemma of sending your child away in the belief that they will be safe. The child feels punished for being sent away. She would have preferred to have died in a concentration camp than be wrenched from her parents.  In dreams, she sees the Rat catcher in her mother's eyes. Her mother longs to be reunited with her daughter but time and circumstances have changed the daughter's attachment. Her British adoptive mother is now the primary attachment figure.
     Against this story is the story of  Efa's current relationship with her own daughter who is on the verge of leaving home, and their attachment and loss issues, so much influenced by Efa's traumatic childhood.
      The play is very good but this production is disappointing. It feels very clunky, and that may be due to the direction. The set also doesn't really do the play justice. There's lots of scope for a more inventive and atmospheric set, lighting and sound. Perhaps this is why it played to a half empty auditorium at the New Theatre in Cardiff.
It's currently on tour throughout Britain until March 2014.

CIPHERS

'A young woman is found dead. Her sister sets out to find out what happened and stumbles into a world of secrets and subterfuge that makes her ask the question,'How well can you ever know someone who lies for a living?'
We saw this play while it was on at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol. It is an Out of Joint production directed by Blanche McIntyre-the company was founded originally by Max Stafford-Clark. It is on tour nationally and well worth seeing. The script by Dawn King is pacey and provocative with a bit of a surprise ending.  The performances are very good although doubling up roles doesn't always work. Characters don't look sufficiently different with an added scarf or coat. The staging creates tension-sliding panels give the feeling of not knowing quite what might be on the other side. The only downside of this is seeing the performers' shuffling feet!
 Contact 'Out of Joint' for touring schedule.

1984

1984, George Orwell's seminal work about State power, control, and persecution seems as fresh and relevant now as when it was published in 1949, when the world was fragmenting into huge power blocs- USSR,USA & Europe. This production of Headlong Theatre and Nottingham Playhouse adapted and directed by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan, seeks to revive Orwell's ideas that Big Brother is watching us and that the Thought Police know what is going on in our heads. 'It explores the world inside Winston Smith's head, and the world without, and catches the euphoria and bliss buried deep beneath the cold face of Big Brother.'

Playing to a packed audience at the Sherman Theatre, the play sets out to be very provocative and challenging. The torture scene on stage was especially gruesome. Winston tries to become a member of the Brotherhood, opposing Big Brother, but it is all a scam. Winston is tortured and eventually can take no more. He demands that the guards should torture his forbidden lover, anyone but him. 

The set design by Chloe Lamford was outstanding invoking a chilling and unpredictable atmosphere. The use of technology, projection and good lighting all helped create anxiety and fear.

The first half is somewhat slow and wordy, but it really picks up into a tense and powerful piece. Well worth watching. On at Sherman Theatre til the 9th of November 2013.