PHYSICAL THEATRE
Showing @ Hill Street Theatre, until 29 August @ 6:30pm
Are you still yourself after your life gets taken away from you overnight? What happens to you after you are forced to change everything about your public image? Cumbernauld Theatre Company’s poignant new production hints that it might be harder than you think to do the right thing.
Welcoming the audience into the Witness Protection Programme, Finn Den Hertog and Robbie Jack play the policemen who have the job of erasing people’s lives and giving them a newer, duller, safer one. As an old case suddenly disappears, they’re taken deeper and deeper into the system to see how many lies it takes to make someone safe.
Cleverly using Magpies as a symbol of how the police slowly steal everything that defines a person, both Jack and Hertog soon become torn over what’s expected off them from their jobs and what’s best for the people they are dealing with. With a minimalist set, the isolation and desolation of this system is emphasised, highlighting the flaws of an organisation that aims to help the public. With creative use of audio-visuals and music the performance adopts a more physical element, successfully capturing the rehearsed rigmarole of creating a false identity and putting it into practice. Viewless is a production which aims evaluate the effectiveness of the Witness Protection Programme, and with a very pessimistic view of this scheme, the cast are able to capture the idea that although police paperwork can change, little consideration is given to what happens to the person inside.