Tron Theatre, Glasgow
3 stars
What would happen if the revolution became reduced to a series of
letter-writing parties that gathered the converted together under the
guidance of the sort of perma-grinning cheerleader normally the
preserve of high street charity muggers? Then what if it turned out
that said cheer-leader had missed the point enough to be sidelined from
the cause?
As an audience of ten or so 'pioneers' are ushered into a meeting room
with name tags and enforced jollity intact, these are exactly the sort
of questions being asked in director Rob Jones and writer Michael
O'Neill's all too timely look at the politics of protest for a younger
generation in a post-ideological age. Our hostess is Layla, the
pyjama-clad evangelist for the Need Nothing movement led by the
guru-like Sam, who wants everyone to move into a global village in
Peru. Layla's nemesis is Councillor Robert Cairns, her former ally and
inspiration, who now wants to counteract inner-city knife crime by
imposing a 9pm curfew.
Aided by hapless assistant Brendan and a litany of meaningless feelgood
twaddle, Millie Turner's Layla finds her original drive stymied by how
the message has been diluted and cheapened by the sort of PR-driven
approach that has left party politics with little credibility left to
spin.
Developed for the Tron's Mayfesto season from a piece originally seen
at Arches Live 2012, Jones' intimate production for the Enormous Yes
company is a wordy dissection of how youthful idealism and the activism
it inspires can be co-opted and corrupted by forces with more
dangerously self-serving agendas. It may take things to absurd
extremes, but the realpolitik behind it is all too plain to see.
The Herald, May 16th 2013
ends
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