04 Oct REVIEW: Shoot, I Didn’t Mean That and The Last Days of Mankind: The Last Night at the Tristan Bates
100 years since the outbreak of WW1, Time Zone Theatre presents Shoot, I Didn’t Mean That and The Last Days of Mankind: The Last Night. Two plays, presented as one, with a wealth of common strands running right through them; somewhat unsurprising when you consider the former is the winning entry of a British writers’ response competition to the latter.
We open with Shoot, a determinedly contemporary look at the politics of deciding whether or not to go to war. In a post- (and probably pre-) Iraq world, it pivots around Sarah, an interpreter locked in her transparent box above the debating chamber, forced to observe and understand, but impotent to alter, maddened by the unwillingness of the politicians to just listen. Played by Emily Bairstow, she has a wonderful charisma and relentless energy, charming, funny and cynical despite having already taken the first few steps along the slippery slope of career suicide.
At the same time, clever staging allows us to join a pair of schoolgirls (Alexa Hartley and Jocasta King) planning a spot of warzone tourism, weighing up their packing decisions (suncream or no suncream?) and practicing being kidnapped and tortured. From the comfort of the classroom, they book their flights on a parental credit card, and fantasise about their “experience of a lifetime.” But somewhere else entirely, there are “Sieg Heil”s aplenty, ringing out across the prison where Juliet (Alexine Lafaber) awaits legal proceedings for alleged Neo Nazi involvement.
It feels quite incongruous watching girls in school uniform plotting their moves for when they arrive in Syria. It’s almost Lord of the Flies-esque in the blend of inexperienced naïveté and fierce determination they bring, never quite grasping the reality of their proposals until they stumble, clumsily, across an irreversible situation. Both a metaphor and genuine phenomenon, the girls are worrying to watch, and yet their behaviour asks more questions than it answers- something pervasive in the production.
The morality and rationality (or lack thereof) in war continues to be challenged in The Last Days of Mankind; always questioning, never condemning, and relentlessly demanding every audience member think for themselves. The same cast adopt different roles, creating an intensely brutal military feel, set against absolutely stunning visuals. A far more abstract yet densely packed piece, it’s well acted throughout with good movement, although the execution of the fights left a bit to be desired.
There are some difficulties with the production, including that the use of darkness as a theatrical device, and a lack of other cues makes it unclear as to when it’s the end. Also, from the production itself it isn’t particularly obvious that they’re two standalone plays rather than some kind of bizarre continuation of one story. Yet all things told, Shoot, I Didn’t Mean That and The Last Days of Mankind: The Last Night offer an intriguing and captivating platform to ask some incredibly important, challenging questions. I get the feeling this is one that, in a few months time, I’ll still be waking up thinking about.
For tickets and information: tristanbatestheatre.co.uk
Dates: 23rd September – 18th October 2014