Showing @ Spotlites @ The Merchants’ Hall, Edinburgh until Wed 14 Aug @ 17:35
It’s a dark time in the history of freedom of speech and information: while Bradley Manning awaits his sentence, the only European country to offer Edward Snowden asylum is Russia. In light of this, one can’t deny that FULLfuse Theatre’s heart is in the right place. Unfortunately, that’s about all that is. Speak No Evil is told through the eyes of young girl born to dissident parents in Belarus. The narrative unfolds in a series of vignettes, utilising quasi-poetic language, feeble physical theatre and crude multimedia.
Bad technology can, of course, always be excused – especially in the current economic climate. However, the former two really should have made up for other short comings. Here they are simply dilettantish. The main problem with the piece is it’s naivety, encapsulated in the assertion that Belarus is Europe’s “last dictatorship”; there’s a finality to this phrasing which has a whiff of Fukuyama about it. With a good deal polishing, the piece would make a good educational play for children. But when the group boast that such a piece of writing would get them arrested in the country of which they speak, they really should have made the most of that freedom.