Reviews

The Man Who Was Thursday

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27 August 2010

Perhaps aspiring to critique America’s anti terrorism policies and machinery, The Man Who Was Thursday questions what each of us would do if directly embroiled in a terrorist plot.

A modern take on GK Chesterton’s 1908 detective tale, our protagonist is transformed from government sceptic, anti terrorism writer – who boasts he has read every page of the TSA hand book and every article of the Patriot Act – to a secret agent in a fictitious anti terror agency through nothing more than a couple words from the omnipotent narrator and someone placing a plastic gun in his hand.

Aiming for farce, but falling far short, the play falls down at the premise that all under cover secret agents carry business cards in their pockets, ready to be whipped out when challenged by a terrorist or secret agent. This leads to some predictable and lukewarm scenes as a series of under developed characters come to the conclusion that all is not what it seems.

Having played a refrain from the satirical puppetry film Team America: World Police near the beginning of the piece, the company perhaps managed to suggest what it was that they were aiming for with this play. Unfortunately, failing to make the most out of any drama or comedy created in their scenes, the play fritters away to a truly disappointing ending.