The K-141 Kursk submarine was once the flagship vessel of the Russian Navy. It sank shortly after a training exercise in the Barents Sea on 12 August 2000. A small number of men are now known to have survived the initial internal blasts. As the Russians struggled to keep face, the event triggered worldwide media frenzy: the ‘unsinkable’ had sunk, explanations were numerous and uncertain, 118 men were dead. These are the facts. Nobody knows for certain what happened in between.

Set in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, Daniel McGowan’s new play To a Sunless Sea is a bold attempt to construct a potential ‘in between.’ Action switches back and forth from the stricken vessel to the office of Admiral Vyacheslav Popov, Commander of the Russian Northern Fleet (Kai Simmons). The addition of Kalimov, a naval secretary (Jack Wilson) and Luzhny, Government agent and Popov’s superior (Daniel McGowan) complete the political picture. While the officials argue about how to handle the disaster, Ivan (Thomas Wilton) and Vasily (Jack Beale) emphasise the personal element of the tragedy as they sit tight below water, waiting and hoping for rescue.

However, attempts to portray the harrowing nature of the subject matter are not entirely successful. The cast suffers from a lack of light and shade. Political debate between Popov and Luzhny is tedious and didactic. Jack Beale and Thomas Wilton are far too subdued in their roles as men facing agonisingly slow deaths. In fact, they may as well be sitting on a park bench for most of the time. Apart from some effective sound design, there is little sense of tension, chaos or danger. Conversations about nightmares and children seem slightly clichéd and out of place. Unfortunately, the potential intensity and force of Daniel McGowan’s piece is left unfulfilled and underdeveloped.

Interweaving truth and fiction is a difficult task - it is hard to fix the boundaries of either. Perhaps a more suggestive, rather than literal, approach would have benefited the piece. None of the play’s characters create real effect or connection. At best they are weak representations - at worst, the real tragedy of 118 souls is weakened as a result.

Cast Credits: (alpha order): Jack Beale. Daniel McGowan. Kai Simmons. Jack Wilson. Thomas Wilton. Radio Voice-Overs: Oliver Birch, Ross Devlin, Marianna Maniatakis, Benjamin Smith

Company Credits: Writer - Daniel McGowan. Director/Producer - Louise Hill. Sound and Lighting Technician - Greg Borrell. Sound Design - Oliver Birch / Daniel McGowan. Programme Design - Thomas Wigley. Company - Trinculo Theatre

END

(c) Fiona Doyle 2007

reviewed Saturday 20 April 07 / Etcetera Theatre

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

www.fringereport.com