The Bomb is inspired by the first meeting between Jo Berry, whose father Anthony Berry was killed (with four others) in the 1984 IRA bomb-blast in the Grand Hotel, Brighton, at the Tory Party Conference, and Patrick Magee, the man who planted the bomb. Yet this play is not the direct testimony of Jo or Patrick, or taken from transcripts of their meetings (if such exist). It is about bomber Ned Keenan (Paul Dodds), whose bomb killed the father (John Mawson) of teenager Lizzie. Lizzie is now the adult Elizabeth (Janys Chambers), mother of Marnie (Abigail Hood) who has just completed her A-levels. The result is that the play includes both fictional episodes and verbatim words and phrases, garnered from interviews with Jo and Pat.
A review of a text-based production should focus on the production rather than the text. Yet the text is relevant, as it is written with young people in mind (Action Transport does plays by, for and about young people). On the night I went the audience consisted mostly of just such individuals, who were being characteristically lively before the start of the play. I have to admit that my heart sank somewhat. But they were silent throughout the play, so all credit to Kevin Dyer and Joe Sumsion there. (They were also clearly fascinated when Jo Berry and Patrick Magee took their own seats, together, in preparation for the post-show talkback session.) My own view is though that The Bomb remains a play of two halves – Elizabeth’s meeting with Ned, and Elizabeth and Marnie’s planned weekend in Blackpool, argument, separation and coming together again – despite Kevin Dyer’s integration of these elements in numerous thoughtful ways.
Staged in the Dukes’ renovated venue The Round, the audience sits around the debris of a bombsite – of Room 533 (where Pat Magee stayed to built and plant the bomb, and where Anthony Berry was later to die), but also, in a lesser way, of part of Elizabeth and Marnie’s house when Marnie empties her suitcase in anger when the Blackpool trip is postponed at the last minute so that Elizabeth can instead go to Belfast to meet Ned. Fragments of different objects hang from the ceiling. Julian Ronnie’s sound effects are magnificent, leading up to the final explosion. And Paul Dodds is an excellent and convincing Ned, sweating while he assembles the bomb, while a conscientious chambermaid knocks on the door.
The Bomb is about psychological complexities, and is ultimately about understanding and putting yourself in someone else’s shoes rather than forgiving (it is certainly not about forgetting). And it is crucially about human beings’ changing identities – the Ned of the play is not the same Ned who planted the bomb, Elizabeth has changed also (Marnie and Lizzie are intentionally played by the same actor). But it is dramatically and conceptually complex too. The Bomb plays with time and space, and shifts from dialogue to externalised interior monologue, which in turn is sometimes about the here and now (Ned thinks through every step of the way up to Room 533, as does Marnie on her own pilgimage to the Grand Hotel), and sometimes about what might happen (before their meeting, Elizabeth contemplates both releasing all the venom she once felt/sometimes still feels for Ned, and him stabbing her). Dramatising all this is very ambitious, and perhaps confusing for an audience in the play’s short duration, which in fact ‘buys time’ in order to allow for the long meeting between Ned and Elizabeth at the end. Whether is is right that the play’s balance is somewhat in favour of enabling us to sympathise with Elizabeth rather than helping us understand the political situation that motivated Ned and his comrades to do what they did is something the audience members will make up their own minds about. But do give yourself this opportunity.
Jane Sunderland
• The Bomb by Kevin Dyer, directed by Joe Sumsion, runs until Sat 25 October 2008; presented by The Dukes and Action Transport Theatre Company. Designed by Alison Heffernan
• The Dukes (http://www.dukes-lancaster.org/), Moor Lane, Lancaster, LA1 1QE Box Office 0845 344 0644
Wed 15 Oct 2008 20:00
Thu 16 Oct 2008 10:30
Thu 16 Oct 2008 20:00
Fri 17 Oct 2008 20:00
Sat 18 Oct 2008 20:00
Mon 20 Oct 2008 20:00
Tue 21 Oct 2008 20:00
Wed 22 Oct 2008 14:30
Wed 22 Oct 2008 20:00
Thu 23 Oct 2008 20:00
Fri 24 Oct 2008 20:00
Sat 25 Oct 2008 14:00
Sat 25 Oct 2008 20:00
Prices
Monday – Friday 8pm: £13.50 (£9.50)
Saturday 8pm: £15.50 (£10.50)
Standing/Leaning: £5
Matinees: £10.00 (£7.50)
Schools: £7.50, one teacher free per ten pupils.
Groups: 12+ save £1 per ticket, 50+ save £1.50 per ticket. Not valid with any other offer.
£5 bargain tickets: a limited numer of £5 bargain tickets are available for
each performance. Please book on the day, in person, after 10am.
Limited to 2 per person.
Kevin Dyer on The Bomb
http://lockpickersball.actiontransporttheatre.co.uk/pages/who.html
Action Transport