Review: A Fight Against... Is Effective, Impactful Theatre
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Last Updated 16 December 2021
That human beings can pick a fight in a room of one is a truism that Chilean playwright Pablo Manzi's stripped down, pared back one-act Una Lucha Contra… — freshly translated with economy and vigour by William Gregory — reminds us of, over 70 sparsely-staged minutes. But can violence have any positives?
Sam Pritchard directs a small, committed cast who make the most of the simple staging and limited time by capturing attention with concentrated energy, easily switching between places and times. It’s effective theatre, done quickly and with impact.
Is there light in the darkness? The bleak setting suggests no, but the gallows humour says yes. As we end on the pavement outside a nightclub in Peru, with an injured bouncer tended to by passers by as he tries to make sense of what he saw, his assailant, non-mocking, almost wondering, tells him: “Look. In the middle of the inferno….a community!”
A Fight Against... is at Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1. Tickets £15-£30, until 22 January 2022.
