Plenty at Silo Theatre

Silo's eclectic programming policy has provided introductions to a stimulating assortment of international playwrights, and David Hare is a welcome addition to the mix.

Despite a string of hits in London and Broadway, his work is seldom staged in New Zealand.

He is highly regarded as a socially engaged writer who successfully melds the personal and political while avoiding the ideological jack-hammer that plagues political theatre.

Plenty charts the rising neurosis of Susan Traherne, a special operations officer whose wartime experience as a courier for the French resistance has left her incapable of adjusting to the complacent and hypocritical prosperity of post-war Britain.

The play is an unusual choice given that Hare's oeuvre includes up-to-the-minute meditations on a variety of topical issues, including the Iraq war.

Plenty was written in the late 70s and is so deeply mired in the minutiae of postwar European politics that is difficult to engage with story.

The treatment of the 1956 Suez crisis presents a coruscating critique of Britain's sordid imperial pretensions, but with such dated material it is easy to sympathise with Liesha Ward Knox's portrayal of an air-headed schoolgirl who needs to be told that Suez is a canal at the top of Africa.

Much of the play's appeal lies in Hare's ability to deflate his own seriousness.

The neurotic intensity of the main character is nicely undercut by her sidekick, an upper-class bohemian whose counter-culture dabbling is like something out of Absolutely Fabulous.

Luanne Gordon brings fine comic timing and an insouciant charm to this role, though the effect is somewhat diminished by Katie Wolfe's direction, which favours pauses and meaningful expressions when lightness and pace might have been more appropriate.

The play stands and falls on the character of Susan Traherne, a complex, demanding role that has attracted the likes of Cate Blanchett and Meryl Streep.

Jacqueline Nairn throws herself into the part and convincingly portrays the character's incipient hysteria.

But this quality permeates the performance, leaving little room for the vitality and idealism that made her wartime experience so significant and so impossible to live up to.

There is plenty to admire in this production, which features strong ensemble acting. David Aston is particularly appealing as the arrogant, imperturbable diplomat who cannot face the idea that his Government would lie to him.

The intimate setting of the Silo gives force to the play's striking use of visual images and these are well supported by an evocative soundtrack.

John Verryt's astute design uses remarkably economical means to capture the cinematic sweep of a story that flashes backwards and forwards in time while traversing a variety of exotic locations.