Exodus @ Traverse Theatre
While it's well-performed, Exodus – the National Theatre of Scotland's new play tackling a zealous Home Secretary – slips all to easily from satire into unbelievable farce
It’s a strange year to be staging political satire. Having watched the UK Prime Minister dodge a plethora of unfathomable, shameful scandals, clinging desperately to power until the bitter, bitter end, the news itself has felt like an act of outrageous folly. However, here we are in Edinburgh, at a Fringe festival many worried couldn’t happen in a post-COVID environment, with a diverse assortment of performers offering their take on the boundlessly bleak events of the last few years. The National Theatre of Scotland have brought their offering in the form of Exodus by Uma Nada-Rajah, a ridiculous depiction of a fictional yet familiar Home Secretary, Asiya Rao (played with conviction by Aryana Ramkhalawon).
Rao has her eyes on Number 10 and is hell-bent on getting there by protecting the UK from the “invasion of illegals” through whatever means necessary. To prove her point, she stages a photo-op, feet stood firmly and defiantly in the sea, beneath the White Cliffs of Dover. However, things take a sinister turn when the body of a baby (potentially still breathing) is washed ashore while the photographer is changing lenses. The play poses the timely question: which children matter and which children do not in the eyes of a right-wing zealot?
The difficulty with satire is that it works best when it’s subtle – close enough to resemble reality while pushing the boundaries enough to make us laugh. Exodus drifts at times into farcical territory, yet even then the events feel too implausible to fully pack a punch.
After a fortuitous one-night-stand, Rao’s cold-hearted chief staffer Phoebe (played by the hugely entertaining Sophie Steer) hires an actress named Haben (Habiba Saleh) to play Rao’s mother and conveniently swing by while her “daughter” is interviewed with a young, inexperienced journalist (Anna Russell-Martin). It’s here that things begin to shift from the absurd to the flat-out unbelievable as one implausible plot point leads to another. Dynamic, sleek staging and a cast of strong performers save the production from an otherwise underwhelming script.
Exodus, Traverse Theatre, until 28 Aug (not 22), various times, £15-22