Can of Worms
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Strange Bedfellows
The Scotsman
In a potent combination of comedy, clowning, torture and violence, duo Nick Jesper and Paul Mundell effectively create numerous laugh-out-loud moments. With a variety of shows tackling ideas of terrorism, torture and the politics behind it all, it's refreshing to see one that manages to carry it off and remain entertaining.
The first half revolves around a scene in which an army officer attempts to train his new recruit ("473") to maim and kill. Unfortunately, 473 is the most ineffectual, sweet soldier known to man. When told to "make a suspect talk", he mimes a hand puppet mouth in front of him. When told to hurt, his weapon of choice is a Morrisons carrier bag containing a packet of crisps.
But over a training process, we see how 473 turns from a cuddly, endearing clown into an undiscerning killer. He ends up posing in photographs with the dead bodies of a hooded terrorist suspect and his former mentor. It's tremendously funny.
Part two sees a Tony Blair-style political leader attempt to cover the whole thing up, aided by a buffoonish colleague who keeps drawing cartoon pictures of torture methods on a white board intended to be used for serious diagrams ("The wave of truth" and "five rungs of Christianity" are just a few).
Devised with director Daniel Bryne, this is a play that certainly doesn't put politics before comedy and, in doing so, is all the more effective at conveying both.
There's nothing earth-shatteringly new in the observations themselves - torture is wrong, brainwashing is bad - but they're put across in a way that is bold, refreshing and different. This gives the ideas themselves a new lease of life and avoids the danger that they'll become ignored due to the sheer volume of artists tackling them.
Mundell in particular is a brilliant, empathetic performer and this show is worth seeing for him alone. And if you only feel you can cope with one show on terrorism and torture this festival season, this is probably going to be the funniest.
8 August 2007
