'Get Busy Livin or Get Busy Dyin'

The 1994 film of The Shawshank Redemption is considered by many to be among the greatest films ever made: would a stage play come up to that level? It does. It does in spades.

The play opens to a stark stage representing a prison yard – all the action happens within these grim walls, with just the occasional table, chair or bed to show a change of scene. The menace of the place, of the guards and the prisoners hangs over every scene. The main characters are the two protagonists, Red and Andy, but there are also ‘the Sisters’, poor hapless Tommy, Brooksie the librarian and so on as well as the guards and the corrupt warden Stammas. They all have their part to play in building up the picture of what life was like in a maximum security prison. The careless attitude to human life with all its possibilities is starkly portrayed.

This is a place where the inmates are considered less than human and are treated as such. The brutality of the system is not downplayed – guard on prisoner and prisoner on prisoner: some of the scenes are graphic and truly hard to watch. Every institution has its rules and in prison they are vicious, but Andy doesn’t want to play by the rules. We watch his slow progress through the institution, fighting it where he can, pushing where he can and retreating where necessary, but also using it to his advantage when he can. Unlike the others he is actually innocent: the cruelty of the prison governor to deny him the chance of freedom and the way he does it almost breaks him, but he manages to come through and quietly follow his plan. Indeed, through all the death and pain, it is also a play with a hopeful ending.

Red, the fixer, the procurer, is our narrator, telling us how the system works and introducing us to the newcomer Andy. Red is played with consummate skill by Ben Onwukwe: he played the same part in the last production of the play and it is hard to imagine anyone else in the role, moving between hard-nosed fixer and someone genuinely concerned for a person he has gradually come to see as his friend. Opposite him is the equally talented Joe Absolom as Andy Dufresne, fighting his way through the prison system. Often he is quiet, his head hanging down, so that when his anger flares, it is really frightening – you are frightened for him as you know it will get him into terrible trouble but you also admire him for his honesty.

The other actors are all superb too, each developing his own character and giving us a glimpse of how different people deal with a terrible situation. The passing of time is highlighted very cleverly by the music played, moving us through different musical periods in a subtle but effective way so that we understand how many years have passed (20 in fact)

Stephen King made his name with the thriller Carrie and went on to write The Shining as well as other horror stories before he wrote his four short stories, of which Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption was one. It may well be this short story that is best remembered in years to come and this outstanding production will help to keep the story in the front of our minds.

Do make every effort to go and see it.