A star-studded and haunting play on the theme of good and evil impresses
ARE good and evil interdependent? What, anyway, do we mean by the word ‘evil’? And is it any help in analysing dangerous criminals? These are big issues that recur in two connected, yet entirely disparate, pieces of theatre.
One is a revival of Bryony Lavery’s 1998 play Frozen at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket; the other is Miss Lavery’s new version of Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock, which is touring the country. Both are impressive, but, if I preferred the former, it’s because I enjoy original plays far more than novel adaptations.
Frozen is haunting precisely because it challenges our assumptions. It starts with intercut monologues from Nancy, a mother grieving over the abduction of her 10-year-old daughter, Rhona, Ralph, a serial killer responsible for Rhona’s death, and Agnetha, a psychologist who comes from America to deliver a lecture on the criminal mind and to make a study of the imprisoned Ralph.
Having introduced the characters separately, Miss Lavery then shows their interaction: it’s that which makes the story intensely dramatic and takes it away from the expression of a solo viewpoint, such as in another acclaimed recent show, Girls & Boys at the Royal Court.
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