The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning, Pleasance/I'm with the Band, Traverse - theatre review

The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning, given a terrifically peppy production by National Theatre Wales, skips across years, continents and history lessons about Welsh radicalism with facility, while I’m with the Band offers the sorry spectacle of an allegory battered to death
12 August 2013

The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning

★★★★☆

I'm with the Band

★★✩✩✩

Playwright Tim Price is having a busy Festival, tackling two hot-potato topics in two different dramas. The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning, given a terrifically peppy production by National Theatre Wales, is the play of the pair that works.

The peg for NTW is that Manning spent some of his teenage years at a school in Haverfordwest and thus we congregate in the main hall of another school, St Thomas of Aquin’s, to find out how this quiet young man was accused of leaking to WikiLeaks the largest amount of classified material in history. Price’s intent is clear from the title: he wants to learn who or what, or what combination of the two, pushed Manning to such extremes.

The six-strong ensemble must lose stones in sweat each night as they whizz from scene to scene in director John E McGrath’s involving quick-change set-up, skipping across years, continents and history lessons about Welsh radicalism with facility. Each takes turns to portray Manning, a clever device that underscores the three-dimensional complexity and unknowability of every human being. His troubled family background, his homosexuality and the hard time he had in the army he never wanted to join anyway are all suggested as factors.

I’m with the Band offers the sorry spectacle of an allegory battered to death. It’s a jaunty idea to examine Scottish independence via a four-piece indie-rock band — comprising one member from each of the home nations — whose Scottish guitarist wants out but for it to work we need to be convinced that this purportedly successful group actually have a back-story. I didn’t believe for a minute that they’d made hit albums together, despite some pleasant songs. Instead Scotland is surly, Northern Ireland prone to aggro, Wales dithering and England keen to carry on regardless. Hardly profound.

The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning until Aug 25 (0131 556 6550, pleasance.co.uk).

I'm with the Band until Aug 25 (0131 228 1404, traverse.co.uk) and at the St James Theatre Aug 28-Sep 7 (0844 264 2140, stjamestheatre.co.uk)

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