Echoes of Syria in a play about Sri Lanka

The Island Nation

Image by Arcola Theatre

Judged by its own ambition, The Island Nation is not an outstanding play, but it’s important. More: it’s a triumph.

It’s a triumph to have translated into a piece of theatre the terrible, uncompromisingly bloody final act of Sri Lanka’s secessionist war – when government forces corralled thousands of Tamils, fighters and civilians, into a small area and mercilessly shelled and shot their way to outright victory.

As Dr Johnson politically incorrectly said of a different sort of performance in the 1800s: “It is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

Even that’s not quite fair. Christine Bacon’s play is done well, and is worth seeing. It illustrates many of the practical, political and moral issues involved in ending such a conflict and of outside attempts to intervene, particularly the role of the UN in such brutal confrontations. You cannot watch the differences of approach tearing apart the humanitarian activist in the Tamil north of Sri Lanka and her office-bound boss in 2009 without thinking of the dilemmas of getting aid to besieged Syrian towns today. But the play’s key characters are not three-dimensional. The British humanitarian worker, the trapped Tamil, the Norwegian and Tamil Tiger peacemakers, the Sinhalese official are interesting characters rather than rounded people.

In addition, the staccato harshness of the sound and lighting that punctuate the rapid-fire succession of scenes and underline the drama of the unfolding events finally jar rather than excite.

Bacon keeps the tension alive partly by her even-handedness. The military and government must take responsibility for the final round of killing, but Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is depicted as blocking a last-ditch peace agreement, and the government official who cynically parries UN attempts to increase relief supplies and raise concerns about the escalating death toll is given a speech in which he lambastes Western countries that complain about fatalities when Western sanctions and military attacks killed tens of thousands more people in Iraq.

It’s informative, stimulating theatre of war about a horrifying theatre of war.

* The Island Nation is at the Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, E8 until 19 November. Info: 7503 1646/ boxoffice@arcolatheatre.com

+ The gobsmacking moment that led to a drama about Sri Lanka