The Bomb review, Tricycle

Harms race

Writers and quantum theory: an explosive mix. The Tricycle's mega-production The Bomb - a partial history is a theatrical skip through the atomic timeline from Hiroshima to WMD and onwards. Featuring the work of ten playwrights across two evenings  First Blast: Proliferation and Second Blast: Present Dangers can also be seen in the space of one day but as each section is complete in itself this is a luxury, not a necessity.

What works within this mix and match format, designed and directed by Nick Kent, are the pieces that rise from didactic speech based ruminations to pure drama. Zinnie Harris tops and tails the project with dark humour around Rudolf Peierls and Otto Frisch, the physicists who set off the arms race. At the end, they are reincarnated as UN observers visiting an Iranian uranium facility.

Lee Blessing's Seven Joys is a visually witty trot through the history of nuclear proliferation - the single member club that can't stop growing once the North Korean kimchi chef starts in the kitchen. John Donnelly's brilliantly inventive Little Russians is a comedy in which a dysfunctional Ukranian family trying to flog an abandoned Soviet missile to the highest bidder, becomes a metaphor for regional instability. In the second half - present dangers - the writers work hard to be even-handed about behaviours that are a function of, and totally dependent upon, skewed ideology, brinkmanship, fear, power and/or money. But, to steal the paradox from David Greig's cleverly constructed The Letter of Last Resort, to play the nuclear game rationally one has to act irrationally or you can't win. The same may be true when writing about it.

In conclusion: An informative, highly entertaining two halves with a versatile cast that keeps it all on track. There's a terrific set which opens like a mushroom cloud and you may find your views on Trident challenged.

References

Tricycle Theatre, Tickets