Tory cuts and increasing inequality. Acts of terrorism being committed on British streets, by British people. Disaffected youth unwilling to engage in the political system as it stands, feeling that voting makes no difference. James Graham’s new play, The Angry Brigade, is set against a backdrop of anarchy in the UK in the 70s, but paints a pretty damning picture of our current situation.

We’re first launched into a slightly inept police investigation, as a newly formed unit struggles to find a pattern in recent London bombings. All they have to go on are communiqués from an anonymous group, the Angry Brigade:

British democracy. Is based on more blood.

Terror.

And exploitation.

Than any empire in history.

Now its government has declared a vicious class war.

A one-sided war…

We have started to fight back…

…with bombs.

It begins as a standard rigid procedural investigation, much of it being played for laughs (some moments more successful than others) by the talented cast of four, as the police team try to get inside the minds of their anarchist targets. As they increasingly think outside the box – the comic climax of this being when they experiment with the radical ways you can sit on a chair: “Look at the world from here. This is an angle from which the world was not meant to be seen.” – they start to make progress with the case.

The second, and much more effective, half flips the action, and lets us into the anarchists’ world. We discover that they are not terrifying evil geniuses, intent on bringing destruction, but a group of passionate and idealistic young people, who want to wake people up to their vision for a better, fairer world.

Stage direction suddenly becomes more free, and the play more fragmentary. Whilst two of the characters discuss tearing the walls of their flat down so that the space is truly shared, one of them breaks free of the restraints of the stage and wanders into the audience to continue the conversation. It was fascinating to see that the vast majority of the audience simply refused to look to the back of the theatre, always keeping their eyes directed towards the stage.

As this half continues the group itself begins to fragment. Homesick and lonely Anna, played with great sensitivity by Patsy Ferran, opens her heart to Jim, asking to be loved, and, in a play concerned with acts of violence, he performs the most violent and devastating act of the play by simply walking away. Jim, incidentally, played by an electric Harry Melling, rather unbelievably was Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films. Yes, Harry’s evil fat cousin has grown up to be a very impressive stage actor. Who’d have guessed?
It’s an ambitious undertaking, with the cast of four playing fifteen characters, and a raft of issues being covered, but in its boldness The Angry Brigade provides a satisfying response to the political and emotional issues that, though feeling so of the moment, have clearly been around for years. ★★★★☆  Deborah Sims   09/10/14