Monsters at the Arcola Theatre

Monsters at the Arcola Theatre

15 May, 2009
by: Emma

'I don't know why you came here. I don't know what you expect from a performance about two children who kill a third'

This is the opening line to Niklas Rådström's controversial play about the murder of James Bulger in 1993 and there's a bit of an awkward tension in the air of the Arcola. What are we doing here indeed? Well personally, I was attracted to the concept – a tasteful production based on verbatim records of the police interrogation transcripts and the point of view of the parents involved. But I can't deny I was lured by the grisly subject matter. It was a horrific crime that happened over 15 years ago yet still it something we will remember all our lives. Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were the youngest convicted murderers in England for over 250 years, and it was a two-year-old child they killed. Why and how could they do it? Would this play add to our knowledge of the facts and would Rådström produce some interesting ideas on the issue? Well yes and no is the answer.

The media played a big part in conveying the story to us at the time and (surprise, surprise) they manipulated it, so that many details were changed or overlooked. Did you know the papers labelled the murdered toddler 'Jamie' but his parents and relatives only ever called him James? Or that thirty-eight people witnessed him being abducted and abused without stepping in? The factual side of the play was fascinating; we go through the real police interviews with Jon and Robert and the exhausting process of getting them to confess. The set design is also impressive; the video cameras are trained on the interviewees and we see their pale faces on flickering TV monitors hanging from the ceiling.

There are also three moving soliloquies by the mothers of Jon, Robert and James which give a real human reaction to the event rather than the hysterical media headlines of 'monsters' and 'devils'.  You are made to see how this was a crime committed by two deeply troubled boys from broken families. All the cast (Lucy Ellinson, Sandy Grierson, Jeremy Killick and Victoria Pratt) are excellent actors,  seamlessly moving between roles both male and female, child and adult. Grierson in particular shines as Robert's mother, painting the picture of her son's home life, his absent father and how, contrary to popular belief, he is a loving boy who sometimes sucks his baby brother's thumb.

It is the questions and ideas that Rådström raises that confuse me. First we are accused, as the onlookers of the play, of not getting involved with the renactment as if we are as guilty as the 38 witnesses. Are they, or even we, the monsters for not doing anything? Well, no, quite frankly, we're not.  If any of the 38 had known the severity of what was about to happen to James they would undoubtedly have stepped in and we are watching what we know to be a play. The questions are clearly designed to make us consider our own inaction to evil, in the past and present, as we are told by a narrator of sorts: 'we are all guilty of what we did or didn't do'. Yet, his final line: 'I'm not saying this makes us responsible, I'm saying this makes this part of our fate' seems contradictory and unclear. 

Rather like with the McCann case, children have been abducted before. In Rådström's play he makes the point that children have killed children before – 'It has happened and it will happen'. So what is his point, is it all inevitable or should we try and stop it? Occasional bewilderment aside, this is a powerful and gripping play which highlights many interesting aspects of the crime that were neglected by the press. There is also one point, that Rådström raises and answers competently: What constitutes 'evil' or makes a so-called 'monster'? Perhaps it is that 'when we are in a place where there is no love then we are the monsters.'

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Emma