An interesting look at protesting and family dynamics. Summary
Rating
Good
The focus of Can’t Kill the Spirit, writtenby Robert Gordon Clark are the actions of a woman, Chloe, (Lisa Day) during an activist event that results in the death of one of the group members. Chloe has been involved previously in the Greenham Common women’s protest and her activism has been rekindled by taking part in climate change marches, seemingly under the banner of Just Stop Oil.
We first see Chloe being held in custody for her part in the event, ostensibly just driving protestors to the event. Chloe refuses to explain to her husband Mark (Roger Beaumont) why she is there and won’t accept bail. This is a recurrent theme throughout the play: Mark asks why? Chloe won’t go into detail. Mark wants to understand, Chloe won’t tell him, and so on. Enter Joe, the son, played by Sam Ebner-Landy who obviously knows what is going on and seems to be playing a significant role in the event. As a seasoned protester he is instrumental in his mother’s involvement. Poor Mark is still asking why? and given the prison setting is at visiting time, there is only ever Chloe and one other person on stage, so he is still none the wiser. His only saving grace is that he is starting to cook which is just as well as Chloe does not intend to go home anytime soon. She embraces the routine; she has time to read and think. She certainly doesn’t want Mark hanging around, to the point where she asks her solicitor to stop Mark visiting.
It becomes clear that this play is written from a male perspective. While Chloe waxes lyrical about solidarity with others when she is marching and when she was at Greenham, we don’t get to see the real Chloe, so for the audience as for Mark it’s difficult to really understand her. Meeting her old protesting friend from Greenham is cited as the spark that ignites her dormant passion. That spark releases Chloe from her dull, boring, mundane middle-aged middle-class life, she finds purpose and friends but at a cost: the destruction of her marriage. Mark losing his job and her daughter wanting to change her name, means passion and commitment come at a high price.
The acting overall is fine, if a little unvaried in its actions, although this may be caused by the script itself. Dialogue at times feels uncomfortably structured: in normal conversations we don’t keep referring to the person we are talking to by name, so the constant “Chloe, I don’t understand “and “Mark please, I can’t go into detail” became somewhat repetitive. Lucy Aley-Parker has done her best to bring the script alive using music and photos between scenes – mainly from Greenham – that added interest and context but these moments are sometimes overly long. The play takes place in a prison visiting room where lighting effects are left minimal, so do little to underscore the drama.
While obviously in the realm of protesting, the comparison between Greenham and Just Stop Oil hit a difficult tone, contrasting the destructive actions of climate change activists with thousands of women peacefully protesting for years. The Greenham women gave up a lot – home, work, family and the prospect of ever having children. They did it for the best possible reasons, not because they were bored housewives, but to protect us all from nuclear war.
Like Mark, I found myself still asking why? come the end of the show. Chloe now has the climate and future generations as a rationale for what she’s doing but it feels that she’s lacking the true commitment that she perhaps had when she was young.
Written by: Robert Gordon Clark
Directed by: Lucy Aley-Parker
Produced by: Doug King, Paula Robinson
Music: Sara Jasmin Page
Can’t Kill the Spirit plays at Waterloo East Theatre until Sunday13 July.
