S-27

Synopsis

May is an idealist. She’s fighting for a better world and has sacrificed more than most. So when the old regime is destroyed, she is rewarded with a job as a prison photographer. But as the enemy pass one by one before her unflinching lens - both strange and familiar faces - can they shake her belief in this world she helped create? Inspired by the work of the photographer Nhem En, who photographed the inmates of Tuol Sleng prison in Cambodia under the rule of the Khmer Rouge, and by painter Van Nath who painted Pol Pot and was one of only seven survivors of Tuol Sleng, playwright Sarah Grochala draws on prison records and interviews with both prisoners and Khmer Rouge cadres to create a startling and affecting drama.

Our Review:

Jo Caird - 12 June 2009

S-27 won Amnesty International’s first Protect The Human Playwriting Competition back in 2007 and this production is a fine first showcase for playwright Sarah Grochala’s powerful work.

Based on events that took place at Tual Sleng prison in Cambodia, the play captures the last interviews of six prisoners as they are photographed by young soldier-turned-photographer May (Pippa Nixon) before being executed. A corrupt police chief, a young boy weeping for his mother, a fellow cadre accused of sabotage; all come before May’s camera, unaware that these moments are their last. Assisting May is June (Brooke Kinsella), eager to learn the photographer’s art and frustrated by May’s refusal to train her.

They are an uncomfortable pair, each of the women trying to reconcile similar feelings of guilt, fear and longing to stay alive, yet finding no comfort in their shared experience. They veer between condemnati...

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