S-27 at The Finborough Theatre

S-27 at The Finborough Theatre

15 June, 2009
by: Belias

A light bulb hangs in a decrepit classroom. Walls where posters once hung are now dirty and bare. Books and chairs are stacked in the corner and a young boy sits below the light. His clothes are stained with dirt and his face with tears. While he whimpers, a uniformed woman barks orders, takes his photo, and then sends him off to certain death. He’s just a number, one of many who will pass her lens today.

May (Pippa Nixon), the photographer and protagonist, is a member of an unnamed organisation that has taken over an anonymous country and is oppressively ruling its peasants. An intense and emotive story, it addresses themes of power and oppression and features wonderful performances by an ensemble cast, with taut direction by Stephen Keyworth. Written by Sarah Grochala, S-27 is the winner of Amnesty International’s Protect the Human Playwriting Competition and is based on events surrounding the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

At the outset, May parades around the room as a symbol of oppression. Forceful and distant, she berates prisoners and her subordinate June (Brooke Kinsella), and carries herself with a masculine swagger. As she poses behind her camera, it acts as a barrier between her position of power and the harsh reality of the oppressed prisoners. The continual encounters with familiar faces however, begin to break her down and a climactic scene with a lost lover strips May of her barrier and constructed facade. Nixon conveys this wonderfully – as she puts up a strong exterior, her eyes and subtle moves suggest the turmoil beneath the surface.

May is followed closely by June, her envious subordinate who was a child when the revolution took place and played a role in seizing the city. As May is filled with doubt and flees the organisation, June takes over her role as prison photographer. Contrasts are drawn between the two women, specifically with their education. May, college educated and professional, approaches photography like a science, while uneducated June wants to imitate foreign journalists she saw in her youth. With each photographer behind the lens, the room is altered: Clean and orderly under May, cluttered and dirty under June.

Here, the camera and tripod seem to stress the importance of learning. They suggest that though the movement may have initially been grounded in education, neglecting this in favour of an urge for power has plunged the regime into disarray. June’s desire to emulate foreign journalists also presents interesting ideas about the media and western culture. Western societies exist just like May, distanced and viewing third-world brutality though the lens of a camera. The play also suggests we are like June - attracted to power and voyeurs at heart, knowing that when the carnage ends we’ll emerge unscathed.

With such intense themes, it is understandable that there will be a few shortcomings with the script. Extensive exposition and lyrical language hurt the impact of some monologues, where subtext would have better served the situation. The vague setting of the play also hurts its effectiveness overall. Perhaps in an attempt to emphasise the universal themes of the story, we are given no details of the setting, though the actor’s accents and colloquialisms are distinctly British. The mismatch doesn’t quite work, and the play seems to exist in neither a third world nation, nor in some sort of surreal Britain. Likewise, we are never told who the organisation is, or what they believed in or fought for. At many times throughout the play we are told ‘There is no family, there is only the movement.’ Powerful words indeed, but they are difficult to put in perspective when the movement is a complete mystery.


With wonderful performances and thought provoking subject matter, S-27 is recommended. It will be running at the The Finborough Theatre until July 4th.


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Belias