Robin Soans’ Talking to Terrorists begins with ex-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Mo Mowlam stressing the need for dialogue with political gunmen, and - in defiance of media images of them as monsters - goes on to show how they too are human, all too human.
Skilfully weaving together characters and stories from Northern Ireland, the Middle East and East Africa, with occasional excursions to troublespots even further afield, Soans’s text is a triumph of verbatim theatre.
As directed by Max Stafford-Clark, the play is engrossing, often funny, occasionally unbearably intense.
But although this Out of Joint production is always entertaining, Talking to Terrorists can’t quite escape the drawbacks of its genre. Much of this material is familiar to anyone who reads the newspapers and putting together evidence from several very different conflicts effectively obliterates the politics of each of them.
The result is a humanistic account which features good terrorists, who have repented of their evil ways, and good Brits, who have defied government policy. What’s missing is any really provocative ideas. Still, the cast, each of whom plays several parts, is uniformly excellent.
Particularly likeable is June Watson’s feisty Mowlam, Chipo Chung’s moving portrait of a Ugandan child soldier, Christopher Ettridge’s Edward - a psychologist who explains the mindset of the terrorist - and Lloyd Hutchinson’s Terry Waite. Jonathan Cullen, Alexander Hanson, Catherine Russell and Chris Ryman round out the cast.
Like the same company’s The Permanent Way, Talking to Terrorists is a very engaging theatrical experience. I just wished they’d talked to some of the really evil bastards still out there.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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