BWW Reviews: THE COLLECTOR, Arcola Theatre, November 17 2014

We descend into the slightly claustrophobic studio space at The Arcola, where three stools stand on an empty stage. It already feels tight, cramped, the bare brick walls hemming us in. Two women and one man then tell their tale of Nassir: employee, translator, boyfriend, traitor.

Henry Naylor steps out of his long career in comedy to write and co-direct The Collector (at The Arcola Theatre until 22 November), a play with very few laughs indeed. We never meet Nassir, but we know all about him from Zoya (Ritu Arya) who is captivated by his quick wit and Western music; from Sgt Foster, who works with him on interrogations of Iraqis; and Capt Kasprowicz who tries to maintain standards of decency in an indecent war. Naylor gives each of them a distinctive voice and gets a balance into his 60 minutes, all-through play.

The three actors work together well, though they seldom interact. Ritu Arya recites verses which contextualise the blighted, fertile crescent between the two rivers where mankind can trace the dawn of civilisation (and some of its most uncivilised behaviour). She is a kid in love like any other, anywhere in the world, but caught in an ancient enmity. Lesley Harcourt's Foster has done her training and believes in its methods (because she sees its results) - she knows that intel is not forced but coaxed out of subjects, no matter what the yahoos may believe. William Reay's Kasprowicz shares those views, but the walls are closing in on his principles, crushed by the reality inside and outside the prison - he cannot hold the centre.

Ten years on from my turning to the first story in my weekly copy of The New Yorker to read Seymour Hersh's expose of the depravity of Abu Ghraib, its familiarity has done little to diminish its impact. This play attempts to explain how the dehumanisation of all parties engulfed them and led to such horrors. At first I thought it a curious subject since it's an old story - things have moved on to Syria and videos, not photographs - but actually now is as good a time as any to think about what happened at Abu Ghraib. Because it'll happen again - not in exactly the same way, not to the same people, not in the same cities - but it will happen because it's just too damned difficult to ensure that it doesn't. The Collector tells us that uncomfortable truth.

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