The “An” in the title is misleading. There are actually three interventions in Mike Bartlett’s very funny, mischievous play.
A and B are good friends. B intervenes in A’s life regarding her drinking. A intervenes in B’s life regarding his choice of partner. And, somewhere offstage, their nation is intervening in another nation’s civil war.
It’s a brilliant device for exploring both one of our culture’s current peccadilloes, and a more universal aspect of the human condition.
Contemporary culture is very keen that we tell each other what to do. The standard you walk by is the standard you accept is a popular mantra, and one that valorises ethical imperialism. It holds that when the world behaves as you think it should, then and only then, can you be morally at ease. Of course, the intention behind such an attitude is usually/often/sometimes/occasionally/perhaps praiseworthy. (Yes, I’m offering a sort of Choose Your Own Ethical Adventure.) We say we entertain this attitude of telling other people what to do because we genuinely care, but we know it can be problematic. A accuses B’s partner of being the “joy police”, but also criticises B’s absence from a rally opposing the overseas military intervention – even though she knows it’s an action he supports.
A and B’s friendship has always been exhilaratingly combative; they like to argue for their personal vision of the Truth. We sometimes say that individuals in such a relationship like the Drama of it. But that can’t be the case if each of the friends wants to win the arguments – for Drama’s gift to humankind is its ability to resist simplicity, to embrace the expression of multiple voices. In great Drama, no single character wins, only the audience. (One of my favourite moments in this very funny play occurs in a gallery. The two friends examine an artwork. We’re told it depicts Tony Blair taking a selfie in front of a war-torn cityscape. A has wanted B to see this artwork. But B‘s response is to ask if it’s some sort of magic eye picture. He asks if he looks at it long enough, or if he squints in some weird way, will it finally reveal itself, despite all appearances, as being a work of subtlety and depth?)
Directed by Mike Booth, this production is a comic delight and a thrilling invitation to thought. As A and B, Brea Macey and Jake Harvey are terrific, delivering Bartlett’s hilarious contemporary dialogue with aplomb. Despite being only eighty minutes in length, it’s a beautiful slow burn of a piece. It’s a joy to watch Harvey present B’s gradually growing awareness that a gladiatorial relationship might not make him happy. Similarly, Macey’s portrayal of A’s slide from sarcasm to bitterness is both pathos-inducing and utterly engaging.
I suggested earlier the play wasn’t only contemporarily relevant, but also universal.
Consider the final scene. (Don’t worry, no spoilers.) To be honest, the final scene did leave me feeling as if the play had morphed into a different genre, that we were now watching a black comedy. And the script does dictate some staging that wrenched me out of its invented world, emotionally and intellectually. But the final image, both visually and aurally, is absolute gold, an almost Beckettian encapsulation of the human condition. Other people are both the cause and cure of our Desperation.
But a Desperation shared is a Desperation halved/doubled.
(Another Choose Your Own Adventure.)
Paul Gilchrist
An Intervention by Mike Bartlett
Presented by Harvey Family Co.
At TAP until July 4
Image by Patrick Phillips
Theatre Red 