Review - Deep Cut Tricycle Theatre - London
Award Winning Must-See Play About Infamous Army Camp Deaths Cover-Up
Mar 13, 2009
Following its success at the Edinburgh Festival in 2008 Philip Ralph's award winning play Deep Cut presented by Sherman Cymru opens at the ever-adventurious TricycleTheatre in Kiburn for a short season.
The Story Behind Deep Cut
Deep Cut is a well acted, superbly written piece of dramatised journalism about one of the most shameful cover-ups by the state institutions in British history, the Deepcut scandal. During the period of 1995 -2002 Private Cheryl James was one of the four young soldiers who had died of gunshot wounds in the infamous Deepcut Barracks in Surrey.
Did Soldier Commit Suicide at Deepcut?
At the centre of Deep Cut are Cheryl's parents Des and Doreen James, whose quest is to seek the truth. Did Cheryl really kill herself? Their daughter was found dead with a gun by her side at the notorious camp, noted for its bullying and sexual promiscuity.
The army proffered that all the deaths at Deepcut were suicides but Cheryl's parents refuse to accept that their eighteen-year-old daughter would take her own life.The play presents facts that disprove the glib explanation from the millitary.
Deep Cut A Play Based on Fact
The verbal evidence given by ballistic expert Frank Swann played convincingly by Robert Blythe makes clear that the purpoted self-inflicted wounds didn't tally with the explosive power of the kind of gun that was fired and suicide was most unlikely. Why did Swann refuse to disclose the evidence to QC Nicholas Blake who was responsible for conducting the review which still elluded the truth? The audience are given no answers.This is not fiction this is a reality and the writer Ralph is a teller of the truth.
Ciaran Mcintyre and Rhian Morgan both excellent as Des and Doreen, uncannily resemble the young soldier's parents who are sitting in the audience.
Does Deepcut Deserve A Public Enquiry?
Taken from original source material transcripts and first hand testimonials Deep Cut poses many questions about the unsatisfactory and shoddy investigation of Cheryl's death even though it followed five months after the first at the barracks.
In the play all the parties concerned reveal their own position on the case and yet because there are no real answers, as no authority is prepared nor wishes to seek the truth the frustration of Cheryl's parents is mirrored in the audience and this is the skill of the play.
Ralph allows his audience to ask the questions he just tells the story as it is with the facts he has.
Watching this theatre of journalism unfold the audience finds themselves trapped in this inconclusive sham of an investigation. Why did every state institution seek to close down the enquiry and why were the families never allowed to see the police reports to this day?
Although the inquest arrived at an open verdict why has there not been a public enquiry and why did the media choose to turn their heads away from this gross miscarriage of justice?
Yes there are a lot of whys and Ralphs play is neither polemic nor gives any answers. However, although there were no witnesses to the deaths of the four young soldiers who died, the factual evidence thrown into the arena in Deep Cut gives reasons for the audience to conclude that there was a massive cover-up.
Philip Ralph's Play Stirs Up Powerful Emotions
How they all died is open to speculation but this play sets to redress the balance by giving a theatrical public enquiry thirteen years after the coroner's open verdict. What emerges through Ralph's play is the suppression of facts and the collusion of the millitary, the government and the police to subvert the course of justice.
Deep Cut is a buried thorn in Millitary flesh and Ralph's stab at the truth leaves an angry void.
Tricycle Theatre Kilburn Box Office 0207 328 1000 Starts March 11th Until April 4th 2009
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