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The Review - THEATRE By TOM FOOT
 
Political theatre packs a punch

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TO THE MOUNTAIN
Theatre Museum

THE hard-line scripts and screenplays of Trevor Griffiths, author of the celebrated Comedians, have earned the Mancunian professor much kudos with the British left.
Perhaps best known for attracting the interests of Hollywood – with Reds with Warren Beattie and more recently Fatherland by Ken Loach – his scripts has delved deep into the Turin factory uprisings of the 1920s, Scott’s race to the South Pole and The Russian Revolution.
Waiting in the wings is his most recent screenplay on the life and times of the great revolutionary Tom Paine. These are the Times should not be missed when it opens at the Almeida in 2007.
Griffiths’ commitment has always been to revealing the real agencies and structures of history. But his art is in depicting the close encounters, the individuals caught up in an oppressive history.
In the depths of the Theatre Museum, The Little Theatre Company has produced three of Griffiths’s plays written 31 years apart.
The first, Thermidor, which takes its title from the 11th month of the French revolutionary calendar, tackles the Stalinist purges in the 1930s. Anya Pakhanova (Imogen Smith) faces interrogation from the bureaucrat (Alexander Yukhov). Officialdom stifles ideology as the suspected Trotskyite faces charges of “lack of vigilance”.
In Apricots, a 1970s couple explore their innermost urges in a depraved, or honest, 10-minute foray into sexual desire. The story of a married couple, individuals in their own home, with only a propensity to masturbate in common, is not for the kids.
Camel Station, written in response to the invasion of Iraq stars (Fenar Mohammed-Ali) as the 13 year-old Tarik, a practicing Hakawati, or Arab storyteller.
Despite the warnings of controversy of on-stage sex scenes and the insight into Russian history, the characters in the first two plays – both written in 1975 – seemed somewhat aloof from their lines, lacking the illusion of empathy.
But Camel Station, with its blend of tragic humour and political relevance, was a real treat. The Iraqi Mohammed-Ali was outstanding, revelling in his role as storyteller. I won’t spoil his punch line, but it’s worth the entrance fee alone.
Griffiths’s is an attractive brand of political theatre, which avoids the pitfalls of a sectarian rant. Recommended.
Until April 23
0207 943 4750

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