The Shatter Box – complicit in this narrative.
As you enter the Lion and Unicorn Theatre in Kentish Town, you’re immediately met with the staging for this production. A cage, no more than one meter square and two meters in height, contains an almost lifeless body, lying, breathing, but it appears only just.
This is the production of The Shatter Box, written by James Lewis and directed by David Brady, for which I received two complementary tickets for – thank you.
The Shatter Box is a dystopian play, exploring the relationship between prisoner with others complicit in his care. It talks about the ethics of imprisonment and use of torture to extract information, though not from a particularly political lens. I must admit that normally my choice of theatre isn’t often fantasy or sci-fi, and so I feel slightly at odds offering my thoughts.
As a starting point though, the cast – Fred Wardale, Gabrielle Nellis-Pain, Lauren Ferdinand, Nick Hardie and Melissa Phillips – are stellar. The energy Wardale in particular brings is formidable, seeing as his character is present on stage from the beginning performance (running time, circa 75 minutes, one act, no interval). And with it, he (and the rest of the cast) brings a particular cadence to the piece, helping to move it forward and to slow down the pace at times. I also liked how the cast use their comedic timing to enable lighter moments to come through, revealing the humanity behind each of the characters.
The staging too is high quality, transporting the audience into a room, more an interogation cell to be honest, where the aforementioned cage is the centre piece, constraining Wardale’s character. Great Lighting design also helps to shift focus, adding dynamism to an otherwise static set, and the hum and drone of a soundtrack of background noise separates us from reality.
And whilst all of this sounds great, there is something in the play that feels uneasy, awkward at times, and maybe that’s the entire point.
As an audience, we’re complicit in this narrative, in this extraction, in this game of chess. The script builds slowly, though I wish there was slightly more ebb and flow where the audience could have time to empathise with each character, and connect more emotionally – but again, this could have been with intent, maybe we (the audience) are meant to be silent voyeuristic bystanders.
I felt powerless at witnessing this show and I was intrigued by the game of poker underway, and the positioning of each character as the story unfolded. As we progressed towards the final scene, I wanted to be left on a cliff hanger, leaving me asking big questions about what would happen next and leaving me with a burning hunger wanting to know more. Perhaps the playwright wanted to give some resolution, I’d have cut to black slightly earlier.
The Shatter Box runs until Saturday 14 September at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre.