Not In My Name

Devised from the Living Theatre Production

Directed by Filomena Campus

At Camden People’s Theatre

58 – 60 Hampstead Rd, London

Call +44 08700 600 100 Tickets £8 -£10

Thurs – Sun  8pm

Running time 70 mins with no intermission

Through October 30 2005

Or Mine

Citing George Bush’s record on death penalties and executions while governor of Texas, and with the provenance of ‘The Living Theatre’s script against State Vengeance’, Theatralia company presented its physical theatre production, Not in My Name at the Camden People’s Theatre.

After 20 minutes of waiting for something to happen, in a room smelling of burnt flesh, a clue that the production had already started was delivered by the stage manager, who stood up and stridently lectured the audience (more so than the Camden People’s bar staff had already done) on how to conduct itself: ’While you are in this space you may not sit down; you may not lean against the walls; you may not lean against the pillars…’  and so on. The only crime the seasoned London audience had committed was to pay to get in, and one told her to ‘F*** off’.

Undeterred, the highly committed and skilful performers began their sometimes captivating, sometimes disturbing routines of repetitive movements and sounds, in the well established style of abstract expressionism. However, after having graphically depicted the holocaust, the worst crime in the history of humanity, to follow that by expressing sympathy for suicide bombers was exploitative, sickening, and for me, the coup de grace of both subject and audience abuse.

The Living Theatre’s work is based on ‘the actor's political and physical commitment to using the theatre as a medium for furthering social change’. The play, Not In My Name, is a protest against the death penalty. Having learned that not all the cast members were against the death penalty, and therefore did not express this in their evening’s work, I was left wondering what else a performer would do just to be part of a production, especially when aided and abetted by a director who, it seems, would do almost anything.

                                               Not Recommended

Saul Reichlin

Chicago Stage Talk Radio Show/www.ChicagoCritic.com

02 Nov 2005