The Mercy Seat

Synopsis

In a time of national tragedy, the world changes overnight. On September 12th 2001, Ben Harcourt finds himself in the downtown apartment of his lover, and boss, Abby Prescott. They should have perished in the attack on the Twin Towers, and now Ben contemplates using the tragedy to run away and start a new life. Together they face a terrible choice, and the phone won t stop ringing...

Our Review:

31 October 2003

As both film-maker and playwright, Neil LaBute has made a career from examining the dubious morals, darker motives and selfish aspirations that lies at the heart of the human psyche, with The Shape of Things (previously premiered at the Almeida) also recently filmed and being shown in this year's London Film Festival.

In his new play The Mercy Seat, again at the Almeida and set in the immediate shadow and aftermath of 9/11, we meet a couple of New Yorkers who are work colleagues and having an affair. It's September 12: the day before, the man was supposed to be in the World Trade Centre at the time of the attack on it, but he missed it because he was having sex with his mistress, who is 12 years his senior, at her loft apartment nearby.

Now his mobile phone keeps ringing insistently, but he refuses to answer it: he's seriously thinking of being counted amongst the missing, and leaving his wife and daughters bereaved instead of dumped for the ...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (193.128.202.113) - 13 November 2003:

I really enjoyed The Shape Of Things and liked the idea of the Mercy Seat but disappointingly it didn't live up to my expectations. It's saving grace was its reasonably short length - I couldn't have taken any more of two people wearing each other down in an attritional war of words. The dialogue mainly consisted of trite exchanges such as 'What's going on here? What do you mean what's going on here? You know. No I don't. Oh yes you do. No, I really don't.' I almost expected the audience to join in it was such a grotesque parody of a pantomime. Full marks to the actors though, they gave their all. Cusack in particular looked absolutely shattered at the end, not surprisingly really as I eas exhausted just watching it....

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