Scorched Earth
Abbey Theatre, Dublin
★★★★☆
The first moments of Scorched Earth explain that a public inquiry into a spate of “land-based crimes” has led to a report highlighting the link between violent crime and ownership of land. Although inspired by John B Keane’s play The Field, it is clear that what is about to unfold isn’t just an individual tragedy but a national malaise.
A cold case has been reopened by Detective Kerr (played by Sarah Dowling) into the death of a developer, William Dean (Will Thompson). He was found dead in a field shortly after outbidding a local (Luke Murphy) who had leased the field for years.
Murphy’s character remains the prime suspect for Kerr as she tries to get a confession in a bleak interrogation room. He reiterates his innocence, but Murphy’s tense squirming constantly contradicts those words of denial.
The claustrophobic setting recalls some of Murphy’s previous works, particularly The Archivist and Volcano, as does the theme of individual versus system, but here it is difficult to empathise with the slippery suspect and his false bravado.
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The setting is ahistorical, in spite of references to the 1990s and Celtic Tiger excesses, and many of the themes are universal, particularly the tension between stasis and change. A local guard who ineffectually investigated the original crime (Ryan O’Neill) is constantly wary of the outsider, in contrast to the local radio host (Tyler Carney-Faleatua), who can’t contain her gushing admiration of the developer during an interview.
A final group dance suggests that it is the land, expressed through Alyson Cummins’s ingenious set, that has a timeless grip over individuals’ behaviour. The obsession with possession of land and consequent exclusion are embedded in society, whether at a micro level between neighbours or a macro level with attitudes to immigrants.
Tight narrative and clever design are central to the success of Scorched Earth, but the immutable physical bond between the human body and land is what lingers after the curtain falls.
Scorched Earth is at the Abbey Theatre, as part of Dublin Dance Festival, until Saturday, May 24th and at Black Box, as part of Galway International Arts Festival, from Tuesday, July 15th, until Saturday, July 19th
