Discipline and Punish

EDINBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL 2008 REVIEW

Discipline and Punish

C Soco

30 July – 25 August 2008

6.25pm (1 hour)

£7.50 - £9.50/concs £6.50 - £8.50

Reviewed by Jacqueline Sharp

I didn’t know what to expect with Discipline and Punish. All I knew was that it would be theatre exploring the psychology and experiences of imprisonment, punishment and the lives of those affected.

The set was a table and two chairs and a billboard hanging from the ceiling that bears the words;

You may not talk

You may not leave

Deviants must be punished

Wait for the bells

I thought this was going to be interesting!

One woman enters the set carrying a satchel and gazes up at the billboard. The bells go and so the story begins!  Others follow one-by-one with their satchels. They all gaze up at the words and keep quiet. 

The bells go off; each person individually gets to talk. The others are not allowed to talk and they have no control.  Lots of bells ring on and off throughout which I found a bit irritating at times. When anyone talks or tries to leave they get punished and picked on by the others.  One can actually feel how restrained the actors were in this gripping and intense theatre performance piece. It was a bit hard to watch at times: very restrictive with nothing consensual about any of it and no chance of being able to say stop!

Two scenes in particular were extremely hard to watch. It seemed like the actors were actually in real pain. It seemed to me to be taking it a bit too far: that the actors do the punishments for real.

As one woman tries to escape and fails, a man repeatedly throws her back onto the floor for at least five minutes.  I couldn’t help thinking the actress would have lots of bruises and sores in this very intense piece of acting. 

Another scene sees two women and one man doing awkward stances, both standing and bending, in really awkward positions. One even stood on her tiptoes.  Both struggled not to fall for fear of being punished.

SUDS Theatre Company got their research for their production from a variety of literary and factual sources and drew from the testimony of prisoners and prison workers. 

This historical piece of theatre is not for the faint hearted but at least you can leave if you don’t like what you see, unlike the restrained, imprisoned and psychologically and emotionally tortured actor.  I couldn’t make up my mind if I liked it or not, as I think it crossed boundaries too far and had nothing consensual about it.

In hindsight, it is only right that a person has the right to say STOP to this kind of punishment and discipline if they don’t like it, not have it forced onto them, on stage and off stage!

Discipline and Punish is on the shortlist for Freedom of Expression Award, there are 41 nominations and the winner will be announced Friday, 22nd August 2008.