Political drama is a humdinger
I’m not a political affairs reporter, so maybe I am the wrong person to review a play which pivots around backroom, post-election political deals.
More experienced political animals could probably find the plot holes in Burn Her but the accuracy of the politics isn’t the point in this taut thriller by emerging, but already award-winning, playwright Sam Brooks.
This is a wryly observed dissection of where humanity comes into politics, and life in general, with women at the centre. Brooks has shoved the male characters aside and by focusing on strong and complex women, highlights conflict and contradictions.
This raises the question of whether a 27-yearold male can create female characters whose words will ring true to a cross section of the population. I think the answer lies in how a play makes you and those around you feel; that Brooks and director Sam Snedden got it right showed in the way the audience around me reacted by expressing loud gasps, a fair few wows, spontaneous applause and sometimes captivated silence.
One even wiped away a tear.
In short, Brooks has done a humdinger of a job — and written some blisteringly-charged lines — which truthfully sum up what it is (still) to be a woman in supposedly more enlightened times.
The six-strong cast are riveting. As the two leads, Miriama McDowell and Bree Peters make a stunning pairing with McDowell’s idealistic politician Aria butting up against the pragmatism of Peters’ spin doctor George Rush all the way.
That’s not to say the characters are perfect. Rush is a little too quick with the one-liners — although they are great — and while deliciously played, Andi Crown’s more seasoned PR hack, Lauren Grant, is overly oleaginous.
That Brooks can write something so meaty at this age, and that we have a cast that rises so ably to meet the material, is a great thing.