Suzie Miller's Griffin follow-up to "Prima Facie" is another look at how the legal system mistreats people, this time a young first-time prisoner caught up in something he barely understands, only realising what's coming after it's too late to do anything about it. The wider focus of this narrative compared to "Prima Facie"s direct spotlight means this feels a little more rambling, widening the perspective to show how things could have gone differently if our protagonist was wealthy rather than poor, how the good intention of a well-meaning witness mean nothing, and how the systems set up to protect our protagonist barely seem to work. There's a mounting tension as it's increasingly clear how over-his-head protagonist has set himself up for.
Andrea James' production uses the small stage of the Griffin well to tell the story, using a trio of actors playing multiple roles from parents to cops to lovers, doctors, family, and police, using a simple institutional set using some large mirrors to allow for a greater range of angles onstage than is usually available. It's a tight, expertly drillled production that mounts in tension to some truly brutal moments, allowing Miller's words to tell the story and not overloading the show with flashy devices.
Anthony Yangoyan plays the young man at the centre of the play - the show uses his first-person perspective throughout to drive the action, and Yangouan keeps the character just the right side of naivety - the character makes several bad decisions throughout the evening but we never feel he's unrealistically dumb. He also switches into an alternate role as another young man, to illustrate how the law treats the privileged versus the underprivileged, and it's a tribute to Yangoyan that this doesn't feel as blindly schematic as it might - he creates two distinct personas that he can (as in the climax) switch betwen at will. Lucia Mastrantone and Anthony Taufa play everyone else, switching between various institutional roles as characters who offer to help or to further endanger our protagonist - Mastrantone gets the best of this material as a woman realising the limitations and effects of her own role in participating in the justice system, but both performers deliver with power.
This isn't the masterwork that "Prima Facie" was, and it can feel in the after-effect a little too diffuse and unfocussed - but it's a powerful night in the theatre provoking a lot of thoughts about the effects of our system of justice in a confronting way. If it doesn't quite capture lightning in a bottle the way "Prima Facie" did, it's still an effective evening.
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