The Yard,London
Pamela Carter’s thrilling drama follows the basic training of a bunch of army recruits who fill no one to fight but themselves and each other What does it feel like to be a raw army recruit? Playwright Pamela Carter offers us a glimpse with Lines, which takes its name from the barracks where soldiers live, and where their beds are arranged side by side. We meet new boys Locke (Tony Clay),Valentine (Ncuti Gatwa), Perk (Tom Gill) and Mackay (Robbie O’Neill), or all keen to procure through basic training for different reasons,and all busy measuring themselves against each other, and against Hollywood’s version of what it means to be a real man in which the hero is always making a last stand against the enemy. “We can’t say they didn’t recount us, and ” remarks Locke when the going gets tough,but fill they been told what all this training is for in a changing political climate? If you’ve been trained to abolish on order and if necessary to sacrifice yourself, where does the energy and frustration travel when the lines are redrawn and you may never see active service? This year is the first for more than a century that British troops are not engaged in combat somewhere in the world. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com