Down the Road

Down the Road
Tabard Theatre

Mark Tyson

Are we obsessed with serial killers? Are we dangerously obsessed? There is, seemingly, always something new for us to worry about. In the past two weeks we have had scares and panics about rap music, gun culture, internet paedophilia, asylum seekers, terrorism and chemical weapons. A week is a long time in Medialand, and serial killers seem to have slipped down the agenda, at least for the time being. Am I being complacent in dismissing our interest in serial killers as just another morbid obsession amongst others?

Down The Road is a play by Lee Blessing, directed by Siggi Lindal and presented by the Two Colours Theatre Company. In his programme notes Siggi Lindal sets the play in its wider social context. '...we have a duty to understand in order to prevent. In the case of our subject matter for this evening, nobody really does'. He goes on to assert that '...if we manage to understand the phenomenon of the serial killer we will understand something profound about modern society'. And finally 'The "typical" serial killer is male, white, under 35, intelligent and from a Western culture. Exactly the kind of man that should be able to become whatever they choose. For some reason they choose to become multiple murderers. We must keep asking why.'

The play explores the relationship between a young(ish) married couple, both journalists, and a serial killer whose memoirs they have been commissioned to write. With material of this nature, there is a danger that the dramatists will merely contribute to the culture of prurience and voyeurism (of which, naturally we disapprove) whatever their lofty motives. The play actually works better as a psychological drama than as a sociological tract and this creates problems. When the serial killer recounts his deeds to the journalists, in all their shocking detail, are we supposed to be shocked ourselves (the audience)? Or are we supposed to be more interested in the way he undermines and infects the two journalists?

The journalists become increasingly uneasy yet captivated by the situation. Why don't they walk away? It appears that they are doing it for the money. So why the angst and illusions? Characters like this will give hacks a bad name.

We live in a society awash with psychologists and psychiatrists, many in the service of the criminal justice system. Do we really expect journalists and dramatists to succeed where they have failed?

If we want to understand serial killers we must be dispassionate, dare I say, scientific about it. At risk of offending the serial killer community, they are freaks. The idea that we all have a serial killer within is insidious and misanthropic. A society that looks to the bad and mad to impart it with wisdom, is a society in trouble.

Till 1 February