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The Review - THEATRE by SARAH FOX
Published: 13 March 2008

Death in the living room?

THE VIEWING ROOM
Arts Theatre

A SOLUTION to prison overcrowding which bucks the current trend of pile ’em high Titans is offered in this futuristic American play, starring Hero’s Leonard Roberts.
Playwright Daniel Joshua Rubin looks into a not-to-distant future, where a couple attempt to appease their social conscience by rehabilitating a convict in their living room.
Young liberals Bill and The Wife (James Flynn and Samantha Wright), deliver their lines as convincingly as their fake American accents. Flynn’s role as the dominant husband falters at the first hurdle because his unnamed wife towers over him by about four inches.
A twist unveils their convict as a murderer. The couple must kill him and then, in line with today’s eco-concerns, they must recycle him.
But Rubin’s attempts to install fear is met with condescending sniggers from the viewers. When I was not distracted by the ushers bouncing up and down telling people to stop laughing, I noticed the success of the set design – the CCTV plasma screens and Ikea-like showroom which provide a parallel to our world.
The stage presence of the convict (Roberts), plonked in a cage in the middle of a home is effective, as is his performance, even if it is a one-dimensional character.
We are led to believe that the looming presence of the criminal highlights the cracks in the couple’s relationship, reversing the roles and making them the trapped. With more development, this concept could have worked.
The Wife seems as attracted to the on-set bathroom as she is to the hunky caged criminal. The threat of his imminent death induces an animalistic fit of angry passion, reducing the prisoner to a sexualised, caged wild animal and the play to confused misogyny.
The simple plot has promise, but the undeveloped characters and risible script ruin the interesting “death row in your living room” idea.
Until March 29
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0870 040 0070

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