The Empire
Royal Court, until 1 May
Polar Bears
Donmar, until 22 May
The Royal Court’s stuffy little upstairs theatre is hosting a new play about cultural imperialism. D.C. Moore sets his scene in Helmand where a young English corporal finds himself morally compromised by his desire to torture a Taleban prisoner. The twist is that the prisoner is a norf-Lunnin geezer, of Asian extraction, claiming to have been kidnapped by insurgents while ‘holidaying’ in Kandahar. This device neatly brings the war back home and turns the play into an examination of the competing religious factions in Britain. And though the script is never less than absorbing, and often very funny too, it takes a while to hit cruising speed and the plot lacks complexity. Some of the minor characters are bizarrely under-used. (One actor, playing a proud Afghan warrior, prances on to the stage, widdles over the prisoner’s head and exits — his evening’s work finished in 17 seconds.)
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