Hydrocracker’s revival of its 2007 production, drawing on five of Harold Pinter’s political plays, is a profoundly disturbing experience. Taking us into the heart of Brighton Town Hall, its official function rooms and its labyrinthine underbelly, the piece is claustrophobic, politically hard-hitting and beautifully performed.
Guards in black check our papers as we enter. They carry stun guns and batons. We enter a debating chamber for a press conference with the culture minister. There’s a queasy steeliness to his defence of his political vision, no matter what the cost.
We move through different rooms, in a downward spiral, as parts of plays such as One For The Road, The New World Order and Mountain Language, are spliced together. We’re both witnesses and visitors, lined up against walls, shouted at as we witness scenes of psychological and physical torture.
This extraordinary, immersive, site-specific production is directed by Ellie Jones, with great attention to detail. Ministry of Culture diktats line the walls. Old council files double as files on political prisoners. The lower rooms are dilapidated, functional, intimidating.
One For The Road is the spine of the piece, performed with vicious control by Hugh Ross as Nicholas, with Richard Hahlo as the political dissident whose wife and son are being tortured. Yet the achievement of this piece is to mix several texts together, showing Pinter’s grasp of how political repression operates through brainwashing, fear and psychological violence.
At times in the show we are separated from friends, at times herded into tiny rooms or narrow corridors. But we know we can leave anytime we like. As this show so powerfully conveys, that’s the difference between us and the political prisoners we encounter.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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