Review: THEBES LAND, Arcola Theatre

A man, barely out of his teens, sits inside a cage idly toying with a basketball - he is a prisoner. Another man, older, talks to us about how tonight's play came to be with the usual back and forth with theatre management and an added wrinkle about using a real murderer, a patricide, for the protagonist's role - he is a playwright. The gimmick with the real murderer doesn't work out, but soon the playwright is showing us exactly what happened when he met the prisoner and when he worked with the actor who plays him.

Tricksy? Yes. A conceit barely capable of sustaining a full length play? Definitely. A fourth wall demolition job unfortunately coinciding with panto season? Well, yes - obviously.

But for all that artifice, the play still works - as writer Sergio Blanco's awards demonstrate - and it allows a fairly familiar story (two actually: the killing of an abusive relative and the creation of a new play) to be renewed and seen as if for the first time. It's vogueishly "meta" in its knowingly postmodern approach, but the drama is not overpowered by the format and both actors convince in their roles. The "drama school warm-up" feel disappears rapidly and a proper, if unorthodox, play emerges.

Trevor White's playwright, T (a nod to Kafka, acknowledged of course), is full of bonhomie towards us in the stalls and brimming with good intentions about how his play will reveal its subject. Scribbling notes at prison interviews, he's happy to embellish and improve them once in the rehearsal space - the line between fact and fiction blurred in true 2016 style.

The play's success depends on the performance of Martin / Freddie, the prisoner and the actor playing him. Alex Austin, big, but in that gauche way that teenagers adopt almost apologising for their size, is tremendous in the doubled roles. As Martin, he's all mumbling, eye-avoiding and lacking in confidence (if not intelligence) with a physical menace that is all the more threatening for its concealing for all but a minute or two. There's a touch of American History X in the vibe in the prison's recreation space. As Freddie, he's campishly enthusiastic, puppy-eyes looking at T not quite believing that he has such an opportunity before he's even finished RADA. Crucially, we warm to his charm as both Martin and Freddie.

The play gives us plenty to think about in terms of what theatre can do and how it does it, and there are plenty of laughs too, including a Whitney Houston motif that leaves just before it outstays its welcome. That stuff lightens an occasionally heavy load, but it doesn't obscure the central thrust of the work which concerns fathers.

Martin is a patricide, but is he as blameless as Oedipus, not in terms of mistaken identity, but in terms of the mental and physical torture that "forced' him to strike back? In a heartbreaking scene, are his naive questions about his mother's demise prompted by his exposure to the myth of Oedipus by T in his rush to educate Martin - if so, is T helping or harming Martin? As T takes on the role of surrogate father to Martin and Freddie, can he just walk away from the prisoner and the actor at the end of the play's run and move on to other projects, or is he too deeply enmeshed for that too not to be a form of abuse? How can a man's love for another be mediated, be it filial, professional or sexual? There's more, but every son and father (or daughter and mother) will have their own questions and answers.

Thebes Land treads a number of fine lines, from any one of which it could topple into melodrama or pantomime or misplaced cleverness, but there are no mis-steps. We're left with a rewarding, innovative drama that demands that we think as much as applaud at the end. It's exactly what a theatre like The Arcola should be doing and it's great to see it done so well.

Thebes Land continues at The Arcola until 23 December.

Photo Alex Brenner.

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