Writer: James Lewis
Director: David Brady
In a world not too detached from our own, Knight (Fred Wardale) has been picked up off the streets and placed in a tiny cell with an electronic implant placed in his head. He is free to go as soon as he divulges the information needed from him; if he reveals the right thing, the cell will open and he can go. The trouble is that neither he nor his interrogators know what that information is.
The dystopian world conjured up in James Lewis’s The Shatter Box is a claustrophobic one. As Knight’s interrogator Reina, Gabrielle Nellis-Pain circles the cage as a lioness surveying trapped prey. Colour is provided by the presence of two functionaries with very different views of their work: Nick Hardie is enjoyable in the somewhat predictable character of an over-zealous security guard with a penchant for violence and taunting prisoners. More interesting is Lauren Ferdinand’s nurse, who has become desensitised to the welfare of the facility’s inmates but is slowly coming to regret her involvement.
But the verbal cat-and-mouse between Wardle and Nellis-Pain forms the crux of the 80-minute play. The originality of the play’s conceit, that neither interviewer nor interviewee knows what information is needed, adds an initial layer of intrigue that affords both actors some meaty dialogue.
The problem is that once the premise is established, there’s very little opportunity for the story to progress. The conversations circle the same points repeatedly; such monotony may be an intrinsic part of Reina’s interrogation technique, but that does not make for fascinating theatre work.
Indeed, as the play heads towards a climax, Knight spits out his summary of what is really going on. What is presented as revelatory is not only obvious but has been addressed in dialogue multiple times. Wardale revels in the opportunity to move between a frightened, confused individual to a spittle-flecked, irate inmate, but there isn’t enough substance to back up the performance. Meanwhile, Nellis-Pain’s character, a cold, locked-down woman in a black suit, feels like an underdeveloped repeat of a trope seen in far too many dodgy sci-fi TV series.
That nothing quite works here is a shame. Speculative fiction such as The Shatter Box, existing as it does just a tiny step between our world and the sci-fi realm, could have much to say about incarceration, torture, and the dangers of ceding unchecked power to the military-industrial complex.
Instead, we have a diverting premise that struggles to go anywhere. Like the information that Knight supposedly possesses, The Shatter Box is elusive and, in its final reveal, underwhelming.
Continues until 14 September 2024
