I finally caught one of the four 'Southern Lights' series a couple of weeks ago. It was the one I most wanted to see as its by the successful Dean Parker and has an intriguing premise: A young kiwi backpacker turns up in Bhagdad in 2004. I believe this was a good success at Bats when it hit in 2005 so was looking forward to it very much.
First let me say that I would be quite happy to have the kind of CV that Dean has, and I am certainly not casting doubt on his ability as a writer - you can heat the 'buts' coming can't you?
I had some questions about the stories told: A few minor things but the main issue for me was that the most interesting scene in the play was off-stage. This was the moment where the Journo and the soldier found some kind of peace with each other and 'cried in each others arms'. The Americans seemed to be the most compelling characters. I just didn't care about the kiwis in it they were just too flat. The Iraquis, aside from some nice comedy, ditto.
However the big thing - and this makes detailed analysis of the play pretty much pointless - is that this play is not for London. This is to do with timeliness, it's just too late. The geo-politics espoused in the play may have seemed like news then but they sure didn't on Sunday night. We are trying to work out how to finish it now, not how it is done.
The sections where the Journo character exposed the imperium for what it was lost the audience completely, they just felt like a Guardian editorial from, well, 2004. Likewise the ideas and cultural points were not startling: The US army out-sources its utilities (no kidding), the Iraqi public sector ceased to exist, replaced by US companies (yep) and so on. Again this is all very much about 2004 and not much about 2007. As the play doesn't advance the argument in the present those sections where they dominate are effectively now dead wood.
So, given that the historical moment of the play has past, why do this play now? Only if the play stood by itself as a drama and the politics were integrated well enough to move and turn the human stories they had created... but they haven't enough 'grunt' yet...
I am glad the play did well and I can only commend Dean for getting in there on this topic. He did the right thing and went for a super-quick slot at Bats as having to wait one or two years for a 'big' production would have been counter productive. But just three years of water under the bridge and it is dated.
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