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I am Montana

Published Monday 8 June 2009 at 11:00 by Natasha Tripney

Samuel D Hunter’s intriguing yet confused play is salvaged from its over-ambition by some strong performances.

Eben has recently returned home to Montana after a stint in the Israeli army. His experiences have clearly left him traumatised but he refuses to confide in his childhood friend and fellow Valumart employee, Tommy. The two men are obliged to go on a road trip to a Valumart conference, taking the oft-wasted Dirk along for the ride, and, as they drive through the state, almost inevitably their secrets come to the surface and various tensions build between them.

Sherri Kronfield’s production is well paced but it never quite gets on top of this messy but occasionally fascinating play. There’s just too much going on - three way sexual tension, an attack on the social erosion caused by vast American corporations such as the thinly disguised Valumart, and a tale of unexpected connection between Eben and a Palestinian soldier, told in pitch-black flashback. It’s the performances that keep you with it. Kevin Watt slowly and subtly reveals how truly fragile and disturbed Eben is following his horrific experiences. David Ames is poignant as the clingy but caring Tommy and Christopher Berry is amusingly - and later, frighteningly - intense as meth-head Dirk.

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