By Cal
Link: https://sohotheatreondemand.com/show/TheSpecialRelationship
£4
Available until: I’m not sure how long it’s available on the
site, but the rental period is 48 hours.
A plane is about to leave. A man appears in a police
uniform. He’s escorting a woman onto a plane, but she has an arm injury so
perhaps that makes sense. The policeman dances. The policeman pulls out a gun.
The play didn’t proceed as I expected from that moment, though I would have known a lot more if I’d read the information about the play. This isn’t a play about a plane hijack or terrorists. This is a play about immigration and deportation and what people go through.
It did take me a while to get fully into the play. The
characters aren’t innocent victims. They’ve committed crimes and they’ve been
caught – and it just so happens they don’t have American citizenship. Some of
them have been in the USA since they were very young, but they’re not American
citizens and have no right to live there. Although deportation seemed a bit
much, that is the official punishment and at first, it was difficult to feel
overmuch sympathy for characters who were trying to avoid being punished for a
crime they’d committed. It’s understandable that they don’t want to go – they
have a life in the USA, and the UK is a foreign country to them. But the
reasons for their deportation are very clear. You can argue against the
fairness of the law but not so much with its implementation.
But gradually, the characters started to gain my sympathy.
It doesn’t matter what they’ve done – the ways in which they’re treated are not
acceptable. They might be criminals but they’re still human beings who have a
right to be treated as such. The way they’re forced to live is shocking. The
lack of help. The lack of dignity. And it becomes clear that, while the
characters have done things wrong in the past, they are not bad people. Unlike
the Immigration Department, they care. They want to help. And they don’t
deserve what’s happening to them.
The moments of dance are a surprising addition, but they are
enjoyable. The performers are very good dancers. Esther Baker’s direction also
has a choreographic element, moving quickly from one scene to another with props
on wheels and a revolving stage. It works well as it shows the way in which the
characters are moved from one place to another. They move in unison because
they all go through the same sort of process.
The acting is also great and the actors develop their
characters in interesting ways, also taking on other roles. There’s no proper
cast list, but the actors are Amrita Acharia, Moyo Akandé, Nicholas Beveney,
Yvette Boakye, Miranda Foster, Fergal McElherron and Duncan Wisbey. The
characters all have stories to tell and I think different stories will stand
out to different people.
The ending is slightly disappointing because it didn’t feel
realistic, but the play, which was written by Hassan Abdulrazzak, has been
carefully researched and draws upon real interviews with ex-prisoners and
experts in criminal law. It is a fact that using true events in fiction doesn’t
always work because real life doesn’t work like fiction. But it also doesn’t
stop it from being a good play.
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