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Review: The New Real (The Other Place, Stratford upon Avon)

Review by Raphael Kohn

 

⭐️⭐️

 

With a recent general election in the UK feeling as if it was only days ago, and a presidential election in the USA in less than a month, it feels the right time for the RSC to premiere a brand-new play about political strategists in their studio theatre, The Other Place. Its tongue firmly in its cheek at times, and finger pointed at the audience and wider society at large, this is as much fictional storytelling as it is holding a mirror up to the world we live in. Transforming the black box space into an arena fit for political battle, David Edgar’s The New Real questions the moral superiority of the west, and its apparent dominance of its liberal democracy.

 


At least, that’s what it wants to do. Its unsubtly fictional setting of some-former-Eastern-European-communist-country-which-is-never-named may be made up. Its characters are at least somewhat invented. They are barely masking the real world underneath however, less hinted at and more in-the-face shouted with references to real life figures. It’s set throughout the 2000s and 2010s, as a team of western political advisers, a strategist and a data analyst, are hired to assist the incumbent’s opposition’s campaign in their upcoming election.

 

Our protagonist comes in the form of Rachel Moss (Martina Laird), a steely-eyed and sharp-tongued strategist, never a step behind, tempted into the politics of the unnamed country by campaign manager-turned-candidate Liudmilla Bezborodko (Patrycja Kujawska). There’s no doubting she’s a good strategist, challenged at first by the language barrier, but quick-witted and innovative. But she’s nothing without data analyst Caro Wheeler (Jodie McNee), whose work is the coal in the campaign’s furnace to power them through.

 


Never too far away is Larry Yeates (Lloyd Owen), an opposing strategist, truly proving the mercenary-like nature of strategists who work for whoever pays the highest price. As well as Yeates, Moss and Wheeler are surrounded by a multi-roling cast of six others, from political opponents to other strategists. But perhaps this is where things start to fall apart a bit.

 

They all switch between (generally-polished) accents well enough. Their rapid costume and wig changes help matters further. But there seems to be a general lack of delineation between characters a lot of the time, with each blending into the next. Most disappointingly, the lead characters never feel fully-formed, without depth or detail, simplified into characterisations that border on one-dimensional. Maybe some can find the plot easy to follow despite all of that, but I am not one of those people.

 


As this all blends together, it feels at once as if the whole thing moves too quickly, and yet too slowly at the same time. The plot absolutely rockets along, from place to place and event to event. But at times its breakneck speed is slowed down by its somewhat baggy tone, with scenes feeling overly drawn-out and laboured. It’s as if there’s a tension between the writing and the performance, written as if it should be faster than it is actually performed.

 

It's not for lack of trying. It’s staged very well indeed on set designer Alex Lowde’s traverse stage, framed by screens above the stage which lower at times to cover the entire traverse. They perhaps lift up and lower down a bit too much, suffering from some overuse at times with a slight overreliance on image projections above the stage to set each scene, resulting in them becoming almost like PowerPoint slides rather than an actual part of the set. They don’t distract from the action too much below, thankfully, all lit effectively (with plenty of dramatic strobes throughout) by Joshie Harriette.

 


It does pick up in the second act, which provides almost all of the drama and modern relevance to today. Finally, after what feels like an hour and a half of exposition, we get some proper tension. It feels a bit manufactured and inorganic at times, but with references to clicks, likes and social media data, The New Real begins to finally find its feet. As it becomes more ‘real’, more relevant, more immediate, with slightly-shoehorned but ultimately effective nods to conspiracy theories and misinformation, it feels as if The New Real might finally redeem itself into a winning show.

 

But unfortunately, it then falls completely apart again. Some oddly strange moments appear, seemingly only to drive the plot forward and bring out some tension, but in the context of the show seem to make no sense. It’s tough to describe without spoiling the twists of a political thriller, but Edgar’s characters make decisions which just seem wildly against what they would really do, eliciting more confusion than intrigue. The plot muddles itself, stuck in its own storytelling, as if it does not know itself what to do next, finally concluding with a moment that should be moving and important to the politics of today, but ultimately feels borderline crass and undeserved.

 


I left unsure of what The New Real really is. Online, it seems to be a play about politics ‘in a place where it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s fake’. In the theatre, it seems to be a meandering quasi-thriller about strategists where the theme of fake news only really appears far too late in the plot. There are plenty of really intelligent ideas at play, in the creativity of the staging and in the core themes. I only wish there was a clearer, more detailed plot in which they could be demonstrated.

 

The New Real plays at the RSC’s The Other Place until 2nd November 2024. Tickets available from https://www.rsc.org.uk/the-new-real/

 

Photos by Ikin Yum

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