“FACE DOWN ON THE FLOOR, SPREAD YOUR ARMS, CROSS YOUR LEGS, OPEN YOUR EARS AND LISTEN!!!!!”
WE’RE ABOUT TO CONSIDER WHY, IF YOU START WITH A FILM WHICH A SCREEN-WRITER, LIKE A WILLIAM GOLDMAN WOULD SAY, NOT ONLY “OPENED”, BUT “PLAYED”, IT’S A PRETTY POINTLESS EXERCISE TO PRESENT THE STORY AS A PLAY, AND ONE WHICH IN ITS PRODUCTION DOES NEITHER!!!!!! ALL THE MORE SO, WHEN THE SAID PRODUCTION DOES ITS “FADE IN-FADE-OUT” BEST TO RESEMBLE A FILM WITH SEVEN ACTING AREAS INCLUDING A ONE-SCENE-ONLY URINAL!!!!
AND FROM THE MOMENT THE KEY COPS CAME KEY-STONE-COP-TROOPING INTO THE SUSPECT’S ROOM ARMED WITH EVERY WEAPON EXCEPT STAGE-CRAFT AND EXPLODED HIS APPREHENSION IN OUR FACES AT FULL VOLUME, THIS SHOW WAS LEFT WITH NOWHERE TO GO!!!!! YOU UNDERSTAND ME?????!!!!
I have not seen the film version of “The Interview”, but the text of the play informs that what sets it apart from an episode of “Wildside” are the mind-games being played by the suspect, Eddie and his primary interrogator, Dt Steele. These are delicate and devious , as layered as a good game of chess, and heightened by the bureaucratic power-struggles being simultaneously woven around the interrogator.
Only Roman Muric, as Eddie, gave us any access to these levels of the story and left us genuinely debating his guilt or innocence, and in respect of what, if anything, by the night’s end. Regrettably he was mismatched with the foot-stomping, table-thumping, file-dumping, Bernie O’Regan, as Steele. Nigel Poulton was acceptably, if occasionally caricaturely oafish as Steel’s heavy-handed partner, Prior. The minor characters were competent, but the success of the story and the evening ultimately depended on the interplay between Eddie and Steele.
Regrettably their minds never really met.