Zero

21st-22nd October,  Contact Theatre

In the face of unabated avarice, Camp Zero is founded to try the perpetrators of crimes against a world that is rich beyond the imagination.  This bold production is set 20 years in the future, when the world has slid into chaos, there are frequent terrorist attacks and Camp Zero is the only possible solution to question and try the culprits.
Tom and Alex, the protagonists of the play, have been enlisted to work at the camp.  From completely contrasting backgrounds, the two men find friendship in their struggle to stomach the camp’s inherently immoral actions, and they are eventually driven to desperate acts as they resolve to expose such unethical conduct.
The small studio space and low lighting heighten the corrupt practices and the prisoner’s torments. In a small way it also enables the audience to experience the same horrendous conditions. Sound is also used to distressing effect; the play starts with a high-pitched screeching that pierces your mind from ear to ear, and the rest of the performance continues in the same vein.  A heavy droning rhythm repeats itself frequently and makes the suffering of the camp inescapable. Phrases are frequently chanted and shouted in the dialogue, reflecting the harsh monotony of captivity.
Camp Zero has much current relevance.  Opposition to today’s Guantanamo Bay is shockingly referred to as being “bullshit liberalist rhetoric”; detention without charge is excused, caused as it is by the “greater good”.  Despite the unthinkable crimes that are carried out, it is not difficult to imagine this production as making a prophecy that could all too easily come true.
The script was technically brilliant, however unfortunately I felt that the actors’ performances were inconsistent. Gritty and uncomfortable throughout, Zero deals with issues surrounding the unjustified detention of prisoners in a mature and powerful way.  Not for the fainthearted.
3 stars.