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'American Psychos' Billed as 'three darkly brilliant plays exploring the violence and evil underpinning everyday life', I wasn't expecting an easy night of light entertainment from this production at the Burton Taylor Theatre. Easy watching it certainly isn't - but if you're ready for a challenging, compelling and superbly acted trio of short plays you shouldn't miss Bash. The violence and evil are all in the telling. All three pieces are set in a confessional mode, as apparently conventional individuals relate the shocking crimes each has committed. An unsettling sense of intimacy is created, both physically - this is a tiny venue - and dramatically, as the actors address us directly and cast us in the role of the hotel room strangers or police officers to whom they are unburdening their souls. The knowledge that all three stories, which initially appear so quotidian, will end in dark, taboo acts creates considerable tension as the narrative slowly unfolds. No action, few props, just words - which fascinate and appal us in equal measure. The first play - Iphigenia in Orem - is a monologue delivered by Ilan Goodman's successful white collar manager. Like all four actors he captures excellently the pace and cadences of conversational American. His evocation of cutthroat, 'greed is good' 1980s capitalism alongside the banalities of domestic life is part David Mamet, part Raymond Carver; the inhumanity of his act is directly linked to an uncaring, vicious corporate world in the most political of the pieces. The second - a duologue with Gethin Anthony and Olivia Gant - is more Brett Easton Ellis territory: handsome preppy types whose fascination with surfaces - and preponsity for trite religious and romantic sentiment - conceals repulsive prejudice and callousness. The third, Medea Redux, is a monologue which thematically echoes the first play. Polly Findlay's performance as a spurned teenage mother is the most moving and sympathetic of the evening. This is a production that will make you think - not least about the causes of crime, and about the violence constantly present in the news. The (remarkably topical) opening and closing pieces, by giving a human face to the 'evil monsters' of tabloid headlines, make for troubling viewing. Perhaps we are all capable of atrocious acts - crimes of passion, selfishness, hatred, or casual indifference. A powerful work, strongly recommended. George Tew, 20.01.04
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