Showing @ Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh until Mon 25 Aug (not 11) @ 12:00
This is 90 minutes of some of the most intense, visceral theatre you’re likely to encounter on the Fringe this year. On a bare set, seven Soviet soldiers are held captive in the meat-curing cellar of an abandoned Polish monastery, late on in WWII (it’s based on a true story). Without food, water or clothing they are stripped (rendered, even) of their dignity. Which one will have the inner strength to survive this most degrading of ordeals? What starts with joshing and philosophising works up to a horrific Lord of the Flies climax. Each soldier’s individuality is laid bare as he is deprived of everything that makes him human.
The Curing Room is a challenging piece that will leave you shell-shocked and will linger in the mind long after it’s over. A universally good cast is directed by Joao de Sousa who delivers David Ian Lee’s potent and affecting new play with admirable muscularity. There is also a haunting soundscape by Angus McRae. ‘What constitutes a man?’ asks the weak-willed Comrade Captain Nicholov as his cohort wrestles with the conflicts of being a soldier, a man and a good Communist. As the group descends into infighting, crises of faith and, ultimately, barbarism, the chain of command collapses as each attempts to deal with the destruction of his soul.