JT Rogers lights up the stage at National Theatre with a brilliantly witty and clear story of endless deception.
Playwright JT Rogers has something of the American idealist about him, and it's clearly evident in Blood and Gifts at National Theatre – not necessarily in the content of his play but in its characters. With zippy humour, strong dialogue and a few caricatures, he skilfully tackles global issues and pushes his audience to engage with the world outside the theatre. In Blood and Gifts, he hits another nail on the head as he did with The Overwhelming, and takes us to Cold War-riddled Afghanistan. The play follows CIA operative James Warnock who liaises with Afghan warlords, Pakistani generals, and British and Russian diplomats as he tries to secure an American outcome for the conflict.
In what sounds like a tangle of messy politics, Rogers teases out a few cruel lies for our delectation whilst exposing the many that won't fit in this weighty play. He also does a great job of conveying exactly what an American outcome is, and it's not strictly victory. Predictably, however, Warnock remains the hopeful American with just the right amount of red, white and blue earnestness to induce a little sympathy from the audience. Played faultlessly by Lloyd Owen, Warnock's naivety fades as the play goes on, but he never surprises and his actions become predictable.
Rogers pairs the ever cool Warnock with an equally predictable Brit in the form of clumsy, sweaty somewhat bumbling Simon Craig. Here Rogers lets himself down. Craig is supposed to be some form of MI6 agent but hasn't quite mastered the art of deception or detecting it. Rather, he overshares and generally makes a fool of himself. While this is hilarious on stage, it's hard to believe in the context.
Blood and Gifts depicts a powerful nugget of realism: the untruths of war. Rogers highlights the language by using a series of sports analogies to show us the price of our own interests and the veiled chaos of conflict. Each player in this 'Great Game' follows their own agenda and clutches at common links to form sides.
Disappointingly, the show lacks detail. Warnock's supposedly plush office is not much more than a bare expanse and he remains in collared shirts and shiny shoes throughout his exhausting travel across mountainous territories where he'd surely be mistaken for a Russian. This is easily forgiven, as the star of the show is the snappy script which presents the local fighters at odds with their American handlers. Emotional and reactionary, they form their own alliances and over ten years at war with Europeans, their alliances change as their enemies do. Satisfyingly this proves to be a tough lesson for Warnock who'll never have things figured out. But then, none of us will either.
Blood and Gifts runs at National Theatre until 2nd November.
Image: Lloyd Owen (left, James Warnock) and Demosthemes Chrsyan (right, Abdullah Khan) by Richard Hubert Smith
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