Smokescreen. Written and directed by Christopher Samuel Carroll. Barewitness Theatre Co. February 2-5. The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. Bookings https://theq.net.au
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Christopher Samuel Carroll's Smokescreen is a chilling two-hander that debates the state of the modern world from the perspectives of 1977. Two American executives meet at a business lounge at an airport. The younger, Brad (Damon Baudin), is in tobacco; the older, Glenn ( Carroll), is in oil. There's an initial air of the mentor and potential boss from Glenn but he's also sounding out Brad in this meeting between flights to see what he's got.
Brad is a smart young dresser. The older Glenn is more tweedy and wears a waistcoat. The air is dense with the smoke from Glenn's cigarettes. Brad ironically doesn't smoke what he sells.
It gradually becomes clear that Glenn is aware of the dangers of oil and the threat of oncoming climate change. He has daughters and fears the future for them but cannot stop smoking. If he's looking to Brad for help, he can forget it. Brad is coolly immoral and utterly logical about smoking, tobacco, oil and how the world works and wags. And about the mechanics of addiction to tobacco, to oil, to the comforts of civilisation.
There's an air of theological debate about all of this. I was reminded somehow of C S Lewis's The Screwtape Letters. and the ways in which a hollow man (or devil) can reveal that there is no moral substance within. The piece increasingly contrasts Glenn's awareness of the trap he is in with
Brad's runs of logic is devoid of any true compassion.
As a play it's inclined to be wordy and could perhaps use more tightening but it will repay audience focus. Spare lighting from Antony Hateley supports a setting of heavy, old-fashioned board room furniture. Very occasionally the sound of a departing or landing plane reminds about the uses of fossil fuel and the implications of past times when smoking was allowed as we flew.
This is a power struggle played out under the flight paths.
And as the (hopefully non-carcinogenic) smoke fills the stage it reminds us of the useless safeguards of the smoking and non-smoking divisions in a closed cabin on those old flights. It's a blistering image for the failure to get at the causes of environmental disaster.
Strong tension and excellent performances from both Baudin and Carroll make this piece worth seeing. Carroll as Glenn has a genial authority undercut increasingly by what the tobacco is doing to him and by his fears for his family. The sustained bouts of smoker's cough are wonderfully done. Those who grew up with smokers will be reminded all too precisely.
Baudin brings out the worst in Brad by underplaying and by stressing the character's cool acceptance of logic and manipulation. Carroll's Glenn seems to have much more self-knowledge but it is increasingly challenged and finally threatened.
Smokescreen is a thought-provoking and welcome start to The Q's 2022 drama programming. It's the job of the arts to challenge and confront especially in difficult times. This is a power struggle played out under the flight paths. The stakes are the survival of the planet. And that, sitting in the dark in a masked audience, with the planes greatly curtailed, seems darkly appropriate.
