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An enjoyable play on free speech. Beautifully presented and performed, it’s full of humour, interesting characters and thought provoking themes.Summary
Rating
Good
Harvard Professor Charles Nichols (Julian Ovenden) has organised a symposium, causing a bit of a stir by inviting Benjamin Carver as one of the speakers. Carver is a Holocaust denier, white supremacist, KKK member, so it’s no surprise that his invitation is not going down well with the student body, with demonstrations all over the place, nor with Nichols’ friends and colleagues who are – mostly – trying to get him to change his mind and rescind the invitation.
As you would expect with a cast of this pedigree the performances are uniformly excellent under Dominic Dromgoole’s slick direction. Every character is a bit smug in their own way and certain they know best, their background and motivations revealed as scenes progress. I particularly liked the discussion between self-satisfied Baxter Forrest (Giles Terera) and bland sycophant Lucas Poole (Michael Benz); their superficial layers are peeled away to reveal their true personalities. However, the limited time given to the bar owner (Paul Rider) and FBI agent (Georgia Landers) means that Rider and Landers are underused.
Paul Farnsworth’s exceptional set is evocative of a New England Professor’s office and its wheeled design allows for quick and smooth transitions into bar, station, house, etc, as required, accompanied by projections and soundscape to maintain interest while this is happening.
The play consists of six short scenes depicting actions which take place over two days, but they are not presented chronologically. We do get to know more about the people involved but I somehow felt shortchanged on many of the arguments and would happily have sat through a longer piece to allow these to be further developed. We never do meet the person at the centre of the controversy, nor do we find out anything about any other speakers. How many are there? Who are they? What point of view are they likely to be presenting? Although those characters who express a preference do offer differing viewpoints, they are entirely based on their own agenda.
In the programme the writer says that he did not ‘… want the play to… provide easy, tidy answers.’ Well that aim is certainly achieved. He did, however, hope to instigate a debate on the important subject of the blurring of the lines between ‘… free speech, hate speech and incitement to violence.’ There may well have been such debate amongst audience members after the play, but not much within it, instead it’s more of a character narrative. The snatches of conversation I overheard on the way out centered on characters rather than issues. Oh, and although there is brief mention of it in the dialogue, the significance of the title entirely escaped me. Maybe I missed something?
But these issues aside, Power of Sail is still enjoyable. It’s funny, full of interesting characters, thought provoking themes and is beautifully presented and performed.
Written by: Paul Grellong
Directed by: Dominic Dromgoole
Produced by: Daryl Roth Productions
Set and Costume Design by: Paul Farnsworth
Power of Sail plays at Menier Chocolate Factory until 12 May. Further information and bookings available here.
