PERFORMANCE REVIEW: S-27

S-27
Finborough Theatre, Earls Court

Drawing on prison records and interviews with inmates at Tuol Sleng prison in Cambodia, playwright Sarah Grochala depicts the bleak reality of the totalitarian Khmer Rouge regime. Inspired by Nhem En’s photographs of Tuol Sleng prisoners and the works of Van Nath, whose commissioned paintings of dictator Pol Pot ensured his survival in Tuol Sleng, the play challenges human reactions towards something as deeply inhumane as genocide.

May, played by Pippa Nixon, is a prison photographer, charged with the unpleasant task of photographing prisoners shortly before they are executed. The play sees May take picture after picture, her sense of compassion towards the prisoners increasingly tested as personal relationships come into play. She and fellow prison worker, June, here played by Brooke Kinsella, spare no emotion: for they know that they are there to get the job done and if they fail, or are seen to fail, they will be accused of sabotage by ‘the Organisation’ and subject to the same fate as these inmates.

Nixon delivers a strong performance as May, from the cold-hearted way in which she confronts the first prisoner, the audience gradually sees her cold exterior crumble as she is reminded of guilt and family loyalties. On seeing her former boyfriend Col, played by Tom Reed, this emotional detachment gives way altogether as she tries to prevent him from exiting the room to meet his inevitable death. Her fear of the regime subsides and realising the chemistry still between them, their frantic sexual encounter signals her decision to escape the confines of the prison.

With great deftness, Kinsella shows the trajectory from June’s role as May’s obedient subordinate to being the powerful one behind the camera as May sits in the chair, awaiting her fate. Extremely intimidating when confronting Col, Kinsella straddles him as he sits defenceless and head down and she nonchalantly burns his arm repeatedly with the butt of her cigarette. The small space is a suitably intense environment, but Kinsella also achieves in drawing out Gronchala’s humour by showing her ineptness with the camera such that May, now in the role as the prisoner, has to show her how to use it properly.

It is not difficult to see why Grochala’s play won the first Amnesty International Protect the Human Playwriting Competition in 2007 and the Finsborough triumphs again in bringing an important issue to the stage and playing host to one of the country’s most promising young playwrights.

Ruth Collins

S-27 runs until 4th July