Oh! What a lively war

Daniel Nelson

How to start a play about Argentina’s Dirty War and the military’s torture and murder of perhaps 30,000 people without putting off the punters? I know - let’s give them a bum and breasts burlesque dancer.

And a conjuror and jokes and songs.

And so, ladies are gentlemen, I give you

These Trees Are Made Of Blood

Image by Southwark Playhouse

You’ll be entertained and then reeled in to the serious stuff. Or will you? Probably, because it’s fun, especially if you are sitting with a beer at one of the tables rather than in a row of chairs around the walls, and the music is good and the key moment of transition from the drum-roll, ta-da mockery of the emcee General to the brutal personal tragedy of a sadistic coup is superbly executed. It’s exuberant political theatre that hits home hard as the mood becomes more sombre in the second half - but it’s patchy so the cabaret conceit sometimes flags.

If it gets the punters in, though, and reminds us of the stupidity of the rhetoric of nationalism and the emotionally stultifying glorification of military discipline, that’s fine by me.

So enjoy, remind yourself (or if you are young, learn) about the events of 1976-1983 (and where else in lefty political theatre does Margaret Thatcher get a positive mention, even if Britain’s culpability by neglect for the Malvinas/Falklands war is ignored), and remember to watch out in life for the language of repression. It’s never far away.

·         These Trees Are Made of Blood is at the Southwark Playhouse, 77-85 Newington Causeway
London, SE1 6BD until 11 April. Info: 7407 0234