International Waters
Seen at Tron Theatre, Glasgow;
touring until April 8
HUMANITY in 2016, it is hardly controversial to suggest, is in a wretched state. However, if David Leddy's new play International Waters is to be believed, things could get a whole lot worse.
The drama is a vision of apocalypse viewed from the perspective of four rich refugees who have boarded the last boat out of chaos-ravaged London. Sarah (the "trophy wife" of a rich businessman), Ben (a world famous crooner), Sophia (a former head of British intelligence) and Arian (a highly successful photojournalist and writer) have paid big bucks for their passage in a well-appointed suite on board a container tanker.
As the ship heads out into the Atlantic, the world is in the grip of catastrophe. A co-ordinated mega-crash in the financial markets and massive cyber attacks on the civil infrastructure are wreaking havoc across much of the planet.
Uber-capitalist Teddy Volkart (who, it seems, is a cross between Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump) is suspected of causing the cataclysm in order to wipe out his competitors. Whoever is behind the social collapse, Sarah and her companions are locked in a small room on a tanker which, worryingly, has veered way off its agreed course.
The ensuing drama is a curious beast. Imagine William Golding's Lord Of The Flies rewritten as a postmodern drawing room comedy by a latter-day Noel Coward.
The play, it seems, is intended to be part thriller, part comic satire. The problem is that Leddy, who directs his piece for his company Fire Exit, takes the best part of the show's 75 minutes to achieve the right tone.
For the most part, the characters seem like 21st-century cliches whose occasionally witty dialogue becomes mired in self-conscious flippancy. At one point, Leddy's excremental bent has the universally talented ensemble (Claire Dargo, Robin Laing, Selina Boyack and Lesley Hart) running around Becky Minto's appropriately claustrophobic set as if they were in a Carry On film.
Inevitably, the play has a twist. It would be wrong to give it away here, of course; although I'm not entirely sure that Leddy doesn't flag it up somewhat himself.
From the Book Of Revelations, to the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road, human culture has always been obsessed with its own destruction. International Waters, which is frivolous even when it is being serious, is unlikely to be remembered as a classic of apocalyptic art.
Tour details: davidleddy.com
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here