Ross Sutherland’s first drama Party Trap is an entirely palindromic play (title included) in which every line in the first half of the play is repeated in reverse in the second. Out of these crazy constraints, a very elaborate and farcical plot emerges. We find a political climate in which the newly elected Freedom Party is seeking to overturn freedom of speech legislation allowing them to eradicate the gutter press, and to also criminalise the criticism of politicians. Sir David Radley, political commentator, is taken hostage and assaulted by Amanda Barkham, the MP he is interviewing live on television about the controversy. What works in this play appeals very strongly, and what works is the concept itself. A palindromic play of this length is a feat of creativity and an astute exploration of how language can be manipulated through the writing and performing,  creating parallelled meanings out of identical language.

The play attempts to deal with the themes of political manipulation and with the politics of a post-truth era, in line with its own forcing of language from its literal meaning. It is a play about spin.

However, following the plot wasn’t always easy as a result of the language needing to be vague in order to fit both contexts. Often, interactions only just about hang together. The constraints of the form were so apparent that it loomed over all other aspects of the play, as both the plot and the depth of the characters were compromised by the lack of range in the dialogue. The rapid transformation of power and the swift resorting to violence was farcical in style, and this felt suited to the comic tongue-in-cheek tone built into the play at the beginning through the music created by Jeremy Warmsley. This was played over a video sequence of adverts and clips with an 80s aesthetic and a strong ironic tone.  This was the style of the play when it was at its most funny and its best. The karaoke opener and the off-kilter duet at the finale approached a Lynch-like surrealness, more fully in tune with the mad palindromic structure.

Simon Hepsworth, playing David Radley, was well-suited to this strand of irony with his creation of hideous and smooth narcissist. Zara Plessard played the violence of her character very convincingly but didn’t gel quite as well to the style of political rhetoric needed to pull off the transformation and switch moment at the centre of the palindrome.

It feels wrong to say that this play is a little too form driven when that’s exactly what was intended by Sutherland. The constraints of the form are what allow him to explore how language is used in political and private spheres, but the gaps in the plot are detrimental to the success of the concept. The idea would have been better sustained in a much shorter, more concise piece.

The Party Trap is playing at Shoreditch Town Hall until October 1st. For more information and tickets, visit The Shoreditch Town Hall website. 

Photo: Alex Brenner