Review: Mutiny at the Arts Centre
All Fletcher Christian wants for his new society in paradise is reason and
individualism.
A straightforward code to live by, perhaps, but simply shedding the officers’
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setting Captain Bligh adrift is not going to be enough. The mutineers and their
Tahitian followers must also shed the strait-jacket of class and sexual and
colonial exploitation.
This new play by the writer of One Man, Two Guvnors picks up the celebrated
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suspicion, greed and lust already beginning to assert themselves.
Its exploration of the weighty themes of society and human nature are framed
by a beautifully conjured South Sea Island setting, all rocks and tide, but
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Hide Adthere’s a confusion at the heart of this play that can’t be hidden. The mix of
high drama and a skittish kind of knowing comedy is wrong somehow.
The ensemble cast work hard to maintain credibility as seadog humour
steadily gives way to horror, but struggle to convince. And using the audience
as a sounding board, in the nudge, nudge manner of a slightly dodgy
pantomime, does not work at all.
Rating: 6/10.
Peter Walters.