The Wrong Man
Pleasance, London N7; until 3 April
What a timely play this is. As events unfold in Belfast, Belmarsh and Camp Breadbasket, this first play by Danny Morrison, ex-IRA activist and Sinn Fein spokesman, shines the light on one aspect of recent political struggle. Morrison, who notably described the republican movement's strategy as 'an Armalite in one hand and a ballot box in the other', has a neat turn of phrase to add to an extraordinary inside knowledge.
We are in Belfast, 1984. A hooded figure is being abused by his captors, IRA men who believe Tod is, for them, the lowest form of life - a police informer, which he strenuously denies.
Through flashbacks, we see how he has got to this point. Tod, whose dedication to the cause was never as strong as his dedication to philandering and drinking, ends the play pretty much as he began it: alone, being interrogated violently, but this time his captors are RUC men.
The scenes of abuse, intimidation and police questioning in this surprisingly evenhanded play are superbly written, with equal measures of tension and dark humour, but the domestic scenes are far less assured. It's well acted by the cast of six, among whom Chris Patrick Simpson (Tod) and Tony Devlin (playing the dual interrogator roles of terrorist and policeman) stand out. But the unnecessary interval fatally breaks the momentum, the play is 20 minutes too long at two hours and the direction by Sarah Tipple unforgivably languorous.
