Reviews

Edinburgh review: Faslane (Summerhall)

Jenna Watt tackles the conundrum of nuclear weapons in her eloquent piece at the Edinburgh Fringe

Faslane
Faslane

A month after parliament voted to renew Trident, Jenna Watt’s performance lecture arguably comes too late. At the same time, the timing’s perfect. We know the terms of that debate, but how many of us made a decision on where we actually stand?

Watt’s in the same boat – or the same Vanguard-class sub. Aged five when the Cold War came to an end, she’s really never needed an answer. To a whole generation, mutually assured destruction is the stuff of old-school science fiction. Four minute warnings are an abstract idea. As a child of the nineties, Watt had no idea that the peace sign on Geri Halliwell‘s dress was originally the CND logo; squished semaphore for ND – Nuclear Disarmament.

Beneath the burble of politicians – Churchill, Cameron, Corbyn, May – Watt talks us through a personal quest to determine where she stands. It takes her to Faslane, home to Trident on Scotland’s east coast and a workplace for several members of her extended family, then onto the ramshackle peace camp just outside, where five full-time protestors seem another family of sorts. That tension’s always present: the pull of people we hold close against the indiscriminate anonymity of mass destruction.

Thought Watt never boils the paradox of nuclear deterrent down to its purest form – that they exist to negate their own existence – she wrestles with both sides evenly and eloquently. Thumping drums up the tension as the conflict of her conscience plays out, Watt flitting from one side of the stage to the other. A place at the table. What table? The power to ensure our own national defence – that America can veto at any point. An outmoded form of defence, in an age of freeform terrorism, that still counters capable, if not credible, nuclear threats. Does it though, given the scale of other armouries?

It’s a conundrum, and Watt captures the frustrations of seeing both sides – especially on such an all-important issue. In the end, she comes to realise opinion’s a spectrum, not a stand-off. You can lean towards a side, rather than come down one way. In picking and choosing a position, rejecting slogans and owning her own opinion, Watt empowers us all to do so and ultimately, shows how the experience changed her, not just her point of view.

Faslane runs at Summerhall at 7.15 until 28 August (except 15).

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