Safety Switch

Safety Switch
By Rowan Freeman. Director: Eden Falk. Cast: Warwick Allsopp, Fiona Pepper, Rowan Freeman, Mansoor Noor. Old Fitz Theatre (NSW) Late Night Show. 13-24 May 2015.

Viewpoints...

“Things, seen from one angle, look entirely different when seen from another – but things don’t change. Their status of being is relative to our perspective.” This is a viewpoint I highly respect and it would appear to be a driver of the action in this play.

The setting is a late night police interview, two detectives are confronting two young men on possession of weapons charges (they were moving stage guns out of a theatre!). They are suspected of terrorism. The senior detective is an aggressive male, who is distracted by a failing marriage and on the verge of getting transferred. The female detective is calmer and tries to maintain protocols and processes. Suspect 1 is scatty but apparently compliant, but when the police leave the room, he shows a very different scary face. Suspect 2 takes the police head on and provokes them to find him guilty through racial profiling. The lies pile up, the behaviour becomes even more bizarre and the tension mounts rapidly.

Safety Switchi s an excellent police procedural, but goes way beyond the classic CSI mode into the much darker and quirkier world of The Killing. Nothing's what it seems on the surface and the truth is buried so deeply that we may need 20 episodes to uncover it.

Being the late night show at the Old Fitz Safety Switch needs to cover up the set pieces from the earlier show and just put out a very simple set of a table and three chairs (the blood effect under the table does need to be better hidden). The acting is excellent, particularly from author Rowan Freeman and the direction from Eden Falk delivers a tight and powerful drama.

The 50 minute duration, small cast and simple staging would make this a perfect fit in the Adelaide Fringe next year. Another great show at the Old Fitz. Well done Andrew, Vanessa and Sean.

Stephen Carnell

Images courtesy of Mansoor Noor. 

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