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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
The Living And The Dead
Verdict: Jaded journalists drama
London Pinter Studio 24-25 March 06 - Fri 19:30 (20:40); Sat 17:00 (18:10)
The Living and the Dead is a drama with a cast of 6 men. It follows 70 minutes of strife between six Westerners 2 journalists, 3 photographers and 1 doctor who feel compelled to work in a war zone in an unspecified African country.
The actors - and audience at very close range - are surrounded by an expanse of black walls broken on one side by a sliver of blue light. The ground is littered with shelled seeds, empty bottles, and a hard-to-make-out lighting motif. Between the debris and the costumes (chinos, a utility vest) there is enough to make out that the men are coming out of 'civilisation' to rough it in a torn landscape, though the question of how civilised these men are becomes a major theme.
Four characters sit tiredly on plastic crates and swig beer as they chat in a murmur, surrounded on three sides by spectators who are also drinking and chattering. The conversation in the centre abruptly crescendos, and a heated competition emerges about the most exotic beverages the men have encountered. Soon two more enter, an American journalist named Roswell and his green photographer Fuchs.
Seemingly for the benefit of this newbie, the other five men bicker and challenge each other, revealing bits of their personalities, their long-established rivalries, and most interestingly, their justifications for what they are doing.
The award-winning translation by Simon Breden succeeds in giving the dialogue a highly naturalistic feel. The intimate staging works cleverly (with the abundant drinks) to integrate the audience as if all are sitting around the same campfire, for a very enticing beginning.
But the text is prone to long rants by men either proclaiming their idealism and their purpose, or their stony resilience in the face of death. There are few moments when characters actually leave stage, so when the drama is pared down to more intimate arguments the other players have little to do but stare off, rather angrily, until needed. Much of the difficulty seems rooted in the story, which, like the characters, seems cynical and conflicted.
This play could be a study of the need to feel needed - each man with a delicate blend of pride in his work and jadedness that it seems has been carefully grown in order to keep him going. At times the men criticise each other for being desensitised to violence (one of the few points that seems relevant both for journalists and lay people). Most of the time they seem hell-bent on proving their masculinity.
The play could be a rebuke of those who congratulate themselves for leaving comfortable lives merely to witness hardship and death without doing anything about it. It might also be an enquiry into the world of war reporting and the images of the 'other' that is often taken for granted: manufactured to feed a demand? These journalists make their livings off of atrocities, but if their complicity in the violence is questioned, it doesnt extend to the spectators, who in a real-world sense are also living at the expense of others.
It might be a study of exploitation; the prickly photojournalist Hveberg brags of having four wives and regularly visiting whores, though even this seems tame compared to an allegation he makes against Roswell. The men could all be versions of each other, at different times in their lives, and their dynamic of both need and hatred evokes a particularly dysfunctional family.
When Roswell calmly replies to his tormentor, 'No one will cry when you die', he may be right, but where does it get anyone? Hveberg, as a character, is not sympathetic enough to engage the audience. He might rant audaciously about women, perhaps exposing 'man' at his basest, but he says nothing original.
The other characters might deserve pity, because they once were or still are naοve enough to look up to Tin-Tin and bring their values into the field. Tremoleda (Simon Balfour) and Enver (Pano Masti) at least seem troubled about their idealism instead of complacent, while Fuchs just seems terrified.
On the surface, the script is maddeningly full of potential, with important themes topical for discussion. But they can hardly be heard through all the vicious fighting. At the end the real horror begins. The - perhaps unchanged - men go from their personal attacks to witness off-stage violence, leaving a rather existential aftertaste. The constant bickering and hyper-masculine atmosphere throughout The Living And The Dead do make it difficult to work out what is the 'point' of the play - and to remain interested.
Cast Credits: (alpha order): Simon Balfour Tremoleda. Edd Hunter Fuchs. Pano Masti Enver. Drew McKenzie Roswell. Ben Tinniswood Hveberg. David Vale Griffin.
Company Credits: Original text Ignacio Garcia May. Script (translation) Simon Breden. Director Simon Breden. Technical Manager Tracey Hammill. Graphics, Light & Sound Simon Breden. Production MC Santos for 36Degrees. Front of House - Katie Dean, Hannah Lloyd, Helen Morley, Gurjot Sindhar, Jen Southern.
END
(c) Jeni Morrison 2006
reviewed 25 March 06 / Pinter Studio
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
