JENNA Watt has a confession to make. Or, more appropriately, a simple admission. Much of the award-winning theatre-maker’s family work at Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde, situated 40 miles outside Glasgow. Faslane, she says, has always featured in her life, “like a distant cousin I’d heard of but hadn’t met yet”.
Really significant theatre shouldn’t give us simply what we think we want, nor pander to our prejudices, however vindicated it makes us feel. And, with Faslane, Watt – who helms this show alone – does not wish to confirm what audiences on either side of the debate already think. As well as interviewing activists from Faslane Peace Camp, her extensive research also took in the views of those who depend on the UK’s nuclear missile program for their livelihoods – many of whom were skilled engineers who previously worked at Clyde shipyards.
With the aid of excerpts from the recent lengthy debate on Trident renewal, her considered, unshowy piece presents the issue as less of a binary debate, more of a spectrum informed by ideals, ethics, realpolitik and the practicalities of living in a time of dwindling skilled work.
Many illuminating points are made here, not least of the generation gap between those who view the CND logo as what it was intended to be (semaphore for the letters “N” and “D”) and younger people who accept its depoliticised meaning as simply the “peace symbol”.
With unshowy sound design by Kim Moore, and nothing but a formation of rocks as her set, there are times during the show where Watt makes you feel very close both to that strategically important location on the Firth of Clyde and Gare Loch, as well as the issues around this highly charged debate.
Until Aug 28 (not 15), Summerhall (V26), 7.15pm (60mins), £10, (£8 concs). Tel: 0131 560 1581.
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