The Unthinkable

The Unthinkable's bleak style and basic premise bring to mind dystopian visions of the future rooted in popular culture, from Orwell's genre-defining 1984 to Hollywood fight-fest Equilibrium. What is obvious from the production's attempt at conjuring such a world is that it is easier done on paper or in film than on stage.

The production draws you into a bureaucratic world where newborn babies are placed with carefully selected parents by a “New World Government” in a bid to unify a population divided by race, class, religion and sexuality. Grey uniforms and ever-present government instructions hammer home the totalitarian theme, but this surprisingly complex play comes with an uncomfortable twist; only an elite class of the physically impaired are allowed to keep their own children.

Director Peter Darney's bravery in bringing such a challenging political production to the Fringe is praiseworthy, but his extensive background in radio seems to permeate the play and The Unthinkable often feels as if it would be more suited to a different format. Much of its action and scenery seem almost irrelevant to the moral drama conveyed by the dialogue between the two excellent leads.

The play is billed as a commentary on the state's encroachment on individual lives. Yet amid all the Big Brother-style surveillance and newspeak, themes of fertility and child-rearing muscle their way into the narrative and acting, adding complexity but clouding the production's focus.

The Unthinkable aims high and wide with an astute examination of contemporary issues through a thoroughly believable allegory, but it fails to translate its grand ambition into gripping theatre.