Alaska

Published Wednesday 30 May 2007 at 13:25 by Mark Shenton

It is just five plays into Dominic Cooke’s new stewardship of the Royal Court, and he’s already proving, both upstairs and down, that he is not just putting new writers at the top of the agenda, but he has a real talent for sniffing out good ones.

All but the import of Anthony Neilson’s The Wonderful World of Dissocia from the National Theatre of Scotland have been original to the Court by first-time writers, and they’ve all been bringing strong stories as well as something to say there.

In the case of DC Moore, debuting here with Alaska, he has come up through the ranks of the Royal Court’s own Young Writers Programme, and this play received a reading as part of the Young Writers Festival earlier this year.

In this electrifyingly focused story of racism, rage and religion, we are introduced to 24-year-old loner Frank in his university halls of residence, where he deals in cannabis and resentment, and then - after he drops out - in his dead-end job at a cinema multiplex, spouting religion and racism when he bothers to talk to his colleagues at all. The arrival of a young Asian woman to work alongside him challenges him in ways he doesn’t expect.

The play does the same for us, making us seriously contemplate where he is coming from. Maria Aberg’s fast and lively production, staged with the audience in two l-shaped banks around the acting area, is galvanised by bracingly good performances, particularly from Rafe Spall’s study of pent-up rage as Frank, and Fiona Wade’s Mamta, who turns from potential victim to win her own victory over him.