Incoming – review

The Cut, Halesworth, Suffolk Given that Andrew Motion is a poet, novelist and biographer, it’s surprising it has taken him so long to get round to writing a play. But, prompted by an invitation from Halesworth’s admirable Hightide festival, he has come up with a 70-minute piece about the impact of the Afghan war on a single family. It is a good, honourable work that shows Motion has a gift for drama. It would be even better if he were less cautious about revealing his own anger towards the current conflict. Danny is a soldier recently killed in Helmand; his wife, Steph, is about to leave the family home. Each is alive in the other’s memory and each needs to tell his or her story. Danny relives the experience of frontline conflict – the concern for “your mates” rather than any patriotic principle, the horror of lugging a scorched colleague on your back, the dream-like sensation of the moment of death. He is cynically realistic about his own role in a dubious war, but Steph needs to feel that he died a hero, that the war has a purpose and that the Wootton Bassett funeral was something more than an example of the English gift for “glorious sadness”. Motion’s play is at its best when it gets down to brass tacks and when the dead and the living offer radically divergent views of the Afghan conflict. Danny has a powerful speech in which he attacks the way war has its own unstoppable momentum: having gone to Afghanistan supposedly to curb the Taliban and al-Qaida and to stop people fighting, he feels that, by his death, he is “now part of the reason it goes on”. I wanted Motion to develop the anti-war argument. But the domestic framework prevents him from pointing out that, according to General Petraeus, there are only 100 al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan. And, although Steph vividly recalls the heartless way she was informed of Danny’s death, nothing she says is as effective as Danny’s account of the way war is fuelled by the endless desire for retaliation. I’m also sceptical about a coda in which Danny talks to his son Jack. The idea of a father and son only communicating after death was done more movingly by JM Barrie in his first world war play, A Well-Remembered Voice. But Motion’s piece is strongly acted, in Steven Atkinson’s production, by Christian Bradley and Penny Layden as Danny and Steph, and by Timothy Greaves as their son. And, even if Motion fights unduly shy of didacticism, he has written a good enough play to make you hope there is more to come. The real revelation at Hightide, however, was Nicked , a musical about Nick Clegg that has been expanded to include the results of the AV referendum. The first half, dealing with the coalition’s formation, is interesting; the second half, showing Clegg in power, is utterly compelling. What emerges is less Clegg’s hubristic vanity than his political ineptitude as Cameron and Osborne run rings round him, especially over tuition fees. Richard Marsh’s rhyming book and lyrics are on the button, Natalia Sheppard’s snazzy score brings the sound of urban music into the theatre, and Jason Longley conveys all Clegg’s narcissistic naivety. Clegg may be dead in the water politically but this musical, suitably trimmed, definitely has legs. Rating: 3/5 Theatre Andrew Motion Michael Billington guardian.co.uk

Posted by on May 8, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.