SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME
Being locked in a room with little or nothing to do for months, years is something, post pandemic many of us can maybe imagine. The claustrophobia, the boredom, the sense of impending doom, the loss of friends and family, the comfort of the outside world. Our Covid-related imprisonment of course was as nothing to the experience of those held hostage in solitary confinement.
Frank McGuiness’ powerful and much-lauded drama was written in 1992 when the memory of captives Terry Waite and others were still fresh in the mind. It takes a bold and talented company to bring its tragi-comic slow-burn narrative to light. Happily local theatre troupe Corkscrew have an enviable track record in bringing serious drama to Cambridge audiences – this current run is no exception to his high octane achievements.
The setting is simple but stark – an enclosed room someone in Lebanon. Three men are held as hostages by an unseen band of terrorists – they are left forgotten, abandoned, unable to see the light of day, chained to stones with only themselves and their thoughts to keep them company. The captive trio are respectively an Englishman, an Irishman and an American. If that sounds like the beginning of an old joke, there is a strong element of dark knockabout comedy in McGuiness’ endlessly layered script. He can turn the mood from manically joyous to tragically intense in a whisker – and so can the cast. Lesley Ford’s direction is simple, stark and entirely appropriate. The black box of the Corpus Playroom already feels a bit like an enclosed cell and often the only soundtrack was the clanking of metal chains tied to the hostages’ ankles. It was visceral stuff and one felt like a silent captive up front and personal in the intimate space whose fourth wall was well and truly broken by the sheer power of the three actors and the gripping narrative of their varied lives left behind; wrenched from them.
Will Males plays the young Irishman, the seemingly happy family man Edward. David John is Michael the upright English academic steeped in Middle English poetry and battered by a recent family tragedy. Steve Nicholson completes the chained threesome as Adam, a nervy American constantly on the edge of despair. The three totally bring alive their characters in a way that makes one long for their release. The playwright throws in national cultures and the challenging of stereotypes. It is a rich mix that the cast succeed in pulling off.
With a witty, even warm-hearted, playscript, the three provide a depth of character that opens a cell door into their private lives. Males is given most to do as the young Irishman whose cheery patina is worn down by events. His descent into darkness towards the end of the play is one of the most powerful moments of theatre I have seen in Cambridge. The talented trio pull off McGuiness’ fine line between laughter and tears with great aplomb. There is such tenderness and even love in the relationships that develop in that grim room; there is poetry and even Old Testament and Koranic verses. Corkscrew Theatre keeps a tight lid on this powder keg of a play. It is one that any lover of theatre must go and see. But hurry, it finishes on Saturday.
