Bang Bang Bang review, Royal Court Upstairs

War locked

Set in the Congo, Bang Bang Bang is a study of those women who scorn manicures and mules and, often, the opportunity to build relationships and families, to work in conflict zones. Sadhbh (Sive) is investigating war crimes in Kigale. Leaving behind her increasingly unsympathetic boyfriend, she and new assistant, Mathilde, interrogate the local war lord whose soldiers have perpetrated mass rapes in the area. One of their victims is an 8-year-old, taken as a wife and then thrown to the pack. Sadhbh promises to bring the men to justice.

Her promise drives the narrative, but this isn't really a play about Africa. It's about the boring, mundane, every day stuff that people need to survive: relationships, trust, security, belief, fidelity, redemption, understanding and sympathy. Far from offering the two women escape, Africa creates extra layers of emotional entanglement to be negotiated as carefully as audiences with tribal criminals.

Bang Bang Bang starts disturbingly, although there's no actual violence. Heart-stopping moments throughout are punctuated with humour - the scene in which the team enjoy a rest and recreation break in Goma is priceless. The contradiction in the play is that it attempts to engage us with events in Africa, but Sadhbh is the focus. At one point, traumatised after an attack on her compound, she chides an Irish journalist for being more interested in the violation of one white woman than hundreds of black, but that's sort of why the audience is there too, right?

In conclusion: This is real theatre, bursting with action, emotion, story and ideas. Max Stafford Clark brings Stella Feehily's script to vigorous life. The cast is terrific, but the special mention is Orla Fitzgerald as Sadhbh.

References
Theo Bosanquet review, Whats On Stage