Terror by Ferdinand von Schirach. Directed by Kim Beamish, Production Designer: Kathleen Kershaw,Lighting Designer: Stefan Wronski, Production Stage Manager: Disa Swifte, Assistant Production Designer: Sam Thomas , Set Construction: Simon Grist, Photographer: Daniel Abroguena, Producer: Lexi Sekuless Productions ,Major partner: Elite Event Technology. The Mill Theatre. June 5 – 15. Bookings:www.humanitix.com
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
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Presiding judge (Tracy Noble) addresses the audience
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Consider this. A Lufthansa aircraft has been hijacked by a terrorist and is being forced to crash into a Munich sports stadium. On the plane are 164 passengers and crew. In the stadium 70,000 have come to watch a football match. Pilot Lars Koch (Mark Lee) has a terrible decision to make. Does he shoot down the plane to prevent the plane crashing into the stadium? He has decided to sacrifice the lives of the smaller number to save the greater number. And for this he has been arrested and placed on trial for the murder of the 164.
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Passengers on the Lufthansa flight
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Kathleen Kershaw’s stark grey
panelled walls remove any emotional connection with the play, and encourage the
audience to focus entirely on the intellectual demand of the experience – to
judge the evidence presented by the court and decide the verdict. By placing
the audience in the role of jury
von
Schirach ensures a Brechtian approach where an audience is persuaded to judge
with clear reason and emotional detachment. This is only possible if the
theatre is thoroughly absorbing. Director Beamish has avoided the clichéd
courtroom with its formal setting and static convention. There is a fluidity of
action as the drama unfolds as prosecutor
(Lexi Sekuless) and Defence (Timmy Sekuless) vie for the most persuasive
argument. Both actors present a convincing contrast in their presentation. Lexi
Sekuless captures the confident and incontestable truth of her case. Timmy
Sekuless presents a human face to legal argument citing Kant and previous cases
to argue his client’s innocence. As well as playing the roles of witnesses and
courtroom officials, members of the cast double as passengers of the ill-fated
plane in a scene of beautifully choreographed
physical theatre, aided by Stefan Wronski’s striking lighting design and
sound design.
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Mark Lee as defendant Lars Koch
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After almost two hours of
evidence and argument that ricocheted throughout the small theatre, only the
closing summations presented by prosecution and defence seemed to test the
attention before being called upon to give a verdict to the court stenographer
(Alana Denham-Preston).
After the
verdict is read out, most actors depart leaving the solitary figures of Koch
and the guard (Rhys Hekemian) on one side of the stage and Franziska Meiser,
the widow of a passenger (Maxine Beaumont) on the other. It’s a powerful and
revealing image that places the impact of the human experience.at the centre of
the legal judgement.
Terror is a night at the theatre that will have you glued to your
seat as you struggle with your
interpretation of the facts and the evidence presented to you by judge,
witnesses and attorneys. Von Schirach’s Terror has been given a first rate
production at The Mill Theatre that will stay with you well after the presiding
judge announces the audience’s verdict.
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Neil Pigot as Christian Lauterbach. Lexi Sekuless as Prosecutor
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Timmy Sekuless as defense Attorney
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