Katharine James
posted 3 July 2007

Occupied France, 1944. In the French on French war, Vichy government troops have captured a cell of resistance fighters. In one room, the prisoners wait. Next door their captors interrogate. Hope flickers briefly towards the end but is soon snuffed out. Men Without Shadows is a long lost play by Jean Paul Sartre. It’s not cheerful.

Mitchell Moreno’s production at the Finborough is a brave attempt at an extremely difficult play. It doesn’t quite succeed, but is by no means a disappointing experience. There’s a major obstacle to begin with, in the form of audience expectation. The action, split into four scenes, alternates back and forth between the two rooms: the audience bears witness to the torture as well as the psychological responses of the prisoners. Naturalistic violence of this kind is monumentally tough to pull off. If it’s going to be played straight on stage, it has to be flawless, particularly in a space as tutty as the Finborough. No one will believe a snapped digit if its owner waggles functioning fingers ten seconds later…

Aside from getting the visual technicalities slick, a lot hangs on the presentation of Clochet (Andrew Fallaize) and his sadistic interrogation techniques. Landrieu, his boss (Lawrence McGrandles Jnr) is squeamish when it comes to blood and screaming, so Clochet is alone among the Vichy guard in his desire to torture. This desire has to be real. Clochet loves inflicting pain. It gives him the kick and the thrill of power. Extracting information is a sideline. Fallaize leans less in the direction of a plausible sadist and more in the direction of a camp impression of one.

In fact, neither Fallaize, nor Charlie Covell’s Lucie, hits the mark. Although this is an ensemble piece, Lucie is the focal point, both as the only woman and, furthermore, the only character with a developed emotional journey – from resolution and defiance through despair and out the other side to the realization that no matter what, she loves living. Covell is clearly talented and an extremely natural performer, but her acting is almost devoid of emotion from the start. This is problematic because it soon becomes apparent that she is going to be left with nowhere to go.

The similarly muted performances from the rest of the cast indicates that this is a directorial decision. A decision which is a mistake. Of course the last thing you want from a play like this is faux emotion and noisy overacting, but you gotta give your audience something. Otherwise the experience becomes almost completely intellectual rather than engaging. And there are textbooks on existentialism for that.

Till 7 July 2007.