“The Angry Brigade” Review

James Graham’s play, The Angry Brigade is split into two halves: in the first act the audience watch a small police unit attempt to track down a group of home-grown terrorists who insist that the government has declared “a vicious class war” and that the time has come to fight back. In the second act, the same group of performers take on the role of the militants allowing the audience to effectively see the hunters become the hunted. Even though the show is based on the actions of a British anarchist group who were responsible for a number of bomb attacks between 1970 and 1972, the actors and assistant director were keen to stress in the post-show talk that this is not an attempt at an accurate historical documentary, but instead an artistic response to the culture of the 1970s and what was going on at that time.

The play itself is incredibly well-acted. Each member of the cast has to take on at least two roles, and it is to the credit of Patsy Ferran, Scarlett Alice Johnson, Henry Melling and Felix Scott that each of the characters they portray are believable and distinct from one another. Although at the same time there are thought-provoking overlaps between their depiction of the police and their depiction of the militants.

The brilliant piece of direction of the second act sees the lights go up and one of the characters, Anna, entering the audience and talking to her lover, Jim, about the nature of their relationship. It is at moments like this where the sheer skill in Graham’s writing shines through, as you begin to realise that each of these activists has a vulnerability to them. This idea is built upon throughout the second half as the audience is confronted with flashbacks to troubled childhoods and difficult home lives.

If I was going to make one criticism of the play it would be that at times it does become didactic, with, for example, the police investigation taking an extensive detour into the nature of anarchism. As a result, sometimes the plot starts to become quite predictable as we go from one conversation about how the state is oppressive, to another where a threat from the Angry Brigade arrives.

Nevertheless, I still think that this is a show that will appeal to anyone who is interested in the political culture of the 1970s, and also the nature of anarchism as a political movement. It is not necessarily the sort of theatre that will continually leave you on the edge of your seat, but it is an interesting piece of work, with some outstanding performances from the cast which leave you thinking about our own responses to terrorism today.