Review: Aftermath, Old Vic Tunnels


“At my interrogations, we just sit like you and I are sitting right now"

Aftermath is a piece of documentary theatre, presented as part of the LIFT theatre festival in the Old Vic Tunnels below Waterloo station. It is based on a series of interviews conducted with 37 Iraqi citizens whose lives were profoundly affected by the war in their country and have been forced to find refuge in Jordan. Names and details have been changed to protect identities but ninety-five percent of the text is apparently just verbatim.

Actor/Directors Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen conducted the interviews in Jordan to find out for themselves what the stories of the Iraqis were and have woven them together to create a coherent, dramatic piece of theatre, presented here by nine actors covering all the parts. It starts by covering life pre-invasion, the struggles under Saddam Hussein’s reign and the life that people built for themselves, in some cases regardless of faith as in the interdenominational society that developed in Fallujah. 

Things then take a much darker turn as war starts and the civilians found themselves caught between invading forces and an increasingly lawless Iraq. These stories are the hardest to hear as they just involve so much unconscionable death and violence, families torn apart by an endless rain of bombs, people sequestered in the Abu Ghraib prison, former neighbours pitted against each other. The final thread pursued in these stories is that of how life has had to continue in the refugee camps of Jordan. 

It is a sobering experience and all the more impressive that it avoids the bitterness and acrimony that one might expect to find, especially towards the American ‘liberators’ but rather sticks to a solemn mood as the recollections are presented matter-of-factly. The ensemble excel at portraying the vast cross-section of Iraqi society represented here with the bare stage focusing the attention solely on the characterisations taking place in front of us. 

However, much like the show that preceded it here at the Old Vic Tunnels, Ditch, it doesn’t really feel like it belongs in here and it is such an idiosyncratic venue that one really does need the show and space to work in perfect harmony. Instead, the rumblings of the trains above just drown out the actors too often and get in the way. 

Aftermath is a considerably powerful piece of work, confronting us with an alternative side of a story with which we may feel extremely familiar already. In giving the innocent victims of wartime the voice they are granted here, it shines a light on the true brutality inflicted during times of conflict, and a real sense of the national pride that has survived despite all that has happened. 

Running time: 85 minutes 
Booking until 17th July



Labels: