REVIEW: The Hot Zone
- Posted on March 21, 2007 2:49 PM
- 0 comments
By Katie Spain
The last time I was at the BAC I was chasing the imaginary tail of i-rabbit. It's a long story so I won’t go into it... one thing can be assured though; a night at the south London theatre institution is never a dull affair.
This time, my BAC night of entertainment was of a somewhat darker nature; with a name like The Hot Zone the play was never going to be a light-hearted audience experience. You know what, after a bombardment of 'nice' skip-along musicals all year... this was a welcome and realistic jerk back into the real world. Let's face it, 'real' is an understatement.
The Hot Zone is the recent work of emerging British Asian theatre company Conspirators' Kitchen. The intense, two-hour play is based on The Guardian's record of interviews at Guantanamo Bay and tackles one of the world's heaviest issues of today; the war on terror. It's emotion-packed, dark and is a bold, look at terrorism and the faces behind it. The play was originally produced in autumn 2005 at the Lyric Hammersmith and Warehouse Theatre Croydon. That's two years and counting, and still the issues are as strong as ever. Director Dominic Hingorani takes Nirjay Mahindru's writing and brings it to life... as much as one can with material soaked in torture and death.
From the moment I step into the intimate little theatre, a feeling of dread hits me. It isn't fear and it isn't unpleasant... just a mood the cast and crew set well before the audience enters the room. A sturdy, stern-faced soldier (Tristram Wymark) paces back and forth across the stage... a pillar of authority above the shivering, whimpering prisoners at his feet. Their cowering, orange clad frames light up beneath sporadic flashes of white light. They’re like rats trapped in a cage; it’s unsettling being enclosed with them.
Despite their uniform, each prisoner has a personality that shines through beneath their tortured mind. Abhin Galeya, Sartaj Garewel and Rez Kempton all play the roles of men verging on madness. At times they teeter on the edge of obsession; occasionally they also look set to crack beneath the pressure of interrogation. Their mental and physical journey is an intense one and, as the officials milk their stories out we’re left guessing… who is an actual terrorist? One of them? All of them? None of them?
Amongst it all, a sexy new agent strides through the prison. Ruby Sahota plays the role of a young British woman determined to dig out the bad seeds from the prison soil. For two-hours, a game of 'cat and mouse' unfolds. Classic moments of humour break the ice just long enough to remind us that we’re all human and I find myself crying… I’m not sure why, but perhaps it’s because this play makes me think beyond the faces and stories we see in the media. Chillingly enough, phrases like “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” confront both sides of the story.
Limited props and extremely simple yet effective use of lighting and bone chilling sound effects back up five utterly convincing performances. Chalk is used to draw boundaries around the prisoners, whilst within their cages; the erratic scribbling of the inmates portrays desperation and impending madness. Or, is all a carefully planned cover-up?
This play will make you think. It will make you squirm and will keep you guessing until the very end. If there’s one play this year we all need to see, this is it. Exit your comfort zone and enter The Hot Zone - in today’s terror-packed world it is indeed “Strange how the dice fall”.
VERDICT: So far, this is my play of 2007. It'll be hard to beat.
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