Ents: Arts

Review: Not Spain

By Emily Hansed
Published: 10/03/2009

Deeply moving and extremely insightful, this successful production of Sanger’s Not Spain portrayed the hardships of war, and western cultures’ perceptions (or misconceptions) of it.

Set in a fictional region but heavily based on the events in the Balkans in the 1990s, this play was flexible, showing relevance to many contemporary issues.

The director’s choice of focusing heavily on western journalists in foreign countries - through the repeated sound and lighting effects of flashing cameras - was effective in putting the audience through the discomfort of this ordeal as it immediately brought the footage of recent conflicts such as in Iraq to mind.

We were suddenly made to realise how our thirst for ‘the truth’ has such a strong and damaging effect on the civilians involved in the disputes we are so desperate to resolve.

The challenging script - with only two characters, very little action and a large amount of heavy dialogue - allowed the actors to excel in making the text lively and believable. The character of Andrei highlighted the intrusion and distress of western journalism on a society already in turmoil.

Dean Anthony Meehan portrayed a man extremely hostile towards journalists and strangers, initially seeming cold and unfriendly.

However, as the play progressed, the actor subtly revealed elements of his character’s personal life, allowing us to sympathise with Andrei’s shocking story of a journalist who found him injured, but chose to attempt an interview with him rather than help.

Meehan showed us how the character had to face his life bravely with no time for self-pity. Andrei is dishonest and secretive throughout the play, but the actor skilfully revealed this to be a harsh result of war. We do not dislike him; we understand his motives, for survival and for his family.

This dishonesty does, however, cause us to feel great sympathy for Sophie, the ignorant journalist who believes her writing will be able to change and help the lives of the people around her.

Alice Stride’s ambitious and headstrong portrayal allowed moments of anguish to seep through the surface, showing the audience the view they themselves may have felt. This suddenly seems childish and fanciful when put in the context of Andrei’s life.

Clearly out of her depth, frequently hurt and confused by Andrei’s dishonesty, Stride showed a character we can all relate to, thus reconsidering our own pre-conceptions.

Staged ‘in-the-round’, the production had a sense throughout of isolation, claustrophobic surroundings (mainly due to the cluttered set) and constant surveillance, three themes that proved to be vital to the text.

However, there were a few problems which hindered a very strong performance; the clutter seemed excessive, restricting the actors, as well as the characters they were playing.

There were also some issues with the direction as the actors did not pay equal attention to each area of the audience, causing some to miss very strong moments. The effects of the cameras and the bomb attack were very impressive and chilling, the intense noise moving through the auditorium leaving the audience in astonishment.

Unfortunately the length of these effects was a little gratuitous, dragging out to lose the impact of shock.

Despite these problems, the entire cast and crew are to be applauded for their great achievement with the difficult script. The intriguing characters, the presence of war and devastation and the focus of western journalism and different perceptions of conflict made a highly enjoyable and hard-hitting piece.