Drawing the Line review, Hampstead Theatre

It's odd to see a play that's all about the drawing of a line on a map without ever being show that map either before, during, or after the process. In Drawing the Line, we're considering the partition of India: the turning of myriad individual states into three (India, and two Pakistans, one which would later become Bangladesh). The line was drawn in a hurry - six weeks - because the 1945 Labour government was short of funds post-war, and wanting to divest itself of disputatious far-off outposts. The chap tasked with Drawing the Line, was Cyril Radcliffe, a lawyer who had never been further than Venice.

Indian break away

Howard Brenton's play is awash with huge swathes of geopolitical dialogue that rise and fall like Himalayan foothills. There are endless cartographic porings and discussions with leaders about ports and trade routes, national shrines and the bloodbath that must follow, but never once a diagram. If you can't visualise Calcutta or Firozpur on the map, you'll have no idea how they affect Radcliffe's Drawing the Line.  It's a bit like listening to football fans discussing the highlights of the 1966 World Cup final: you yearn to see the game for yourself.  The set doesn't help - it's a Taj Mahal fretwork that's wonderfully pretty but ungiving. As if to compensate, a lot of the acting is overdone: every time Cyril's got the runs he both announces it and clutches his belly and Nehru, who oddly towers over the entire cast, literally skips off for nookie with Edwina Mountbatten.

Edwina is more tricksy Head Mistress than 1940s toff. Indeed, all the accents are odd. If an actor is playing Churchill, he usually mimics Churchill's tone and pace. The Indian leaders in Drawing the Line however, are strangely hybrid.  Gandhi sounds nothing like. As he flobs around with his fawning handmaidens bringing yoghurt, there's a strangely Brummie inflection. Nehru only manages an approximation of the original when he makes the Freedom at Midnight speech.

In conclusion:  Drawing the Line is interesting rather than impelling. Tom Beard is superb as Radcliffe and Paul Bazely brings genuine tension to the stage  as Jinnah, but there is a feeling throughout of the play being only half ready for its audience.  With some paring back of dialogue and livelier direction, it could feel very different.

References
Hampstead Theatre, Tickets

Hampstead Theatre, Eton Road, London NW3.  Run ends 11 January 2014