A fiercely relevant production wanting slightly clearer direction but holding its own at the Tower Theatre.
Sam Holcroft’s 2023 dystopian censorship play A Mirror follows the inner workings of the Ministry of Culture, the propagandist arm of the reigning totalitarian regime. When an unknown playwright and former military engineer Adem (Cameron Jones) submits his play – a series of harrowing stories he’s heard through the walls of his flat – for public funding, the Culture office calls him in for a meeting. But it’s not about his play.
Adem quickly finds himself at the centre of questioning. He’s a talented playwright, the Ministry Deputy Čelik (Georgie Ashby) assures him. But the content of the play… it’s too much of a mirror of the society they live in. Surely no one would want to pay to watch the harsh realities of life – poverty, inequality, political dissatisfaction – onstage! Much better, Čelik argues, to write paintings instead of mirrors – stories about the beautiful (not the rough and terrible) within the mundane and profane alleyways of life. She arranges for Adem to receive mentoring from one of the Ministry’s foremost writers in residence, Bax (Peter Molloy) – a meeting proctored, of course, by Čelik herself and her no-nonsense, ex-army assistant Mei (Katie Francis).
And to make things even nuttier, the whole thing is a play within a play. What begins as a wedding ceremony is, once an officer excuses themself from the audience, becomes an evening of illegal theatre. The play we’re watching is actually, the actors playing actors inform us, banned. And everyone in the playhouse is complicit.
A Mirror is an exploration of state-sponsored art, censorship, and who gets to define “truth.” The piece itself is certainly relevant to state-run media today. And standout performances by Georgie Ashby and Katie Francis transform a very cerebral, word-dense play into a dynamic story that is easy and engaging to follow. The conviction and full embodiment of their characters lends the story the same unease one feels while reading any number of literature’s greatest dystopian hits.
The direction, however, doesn’t support the cast’s performances. For one, the staging is physically confined and does not make effective use of the Tower Theatre’s spacious playing space. The piece feels like it’s been staged for a proscenium arch, not a generous thrust. As such, the scenes feel cavernous, the props small and wimpy suggestions of a world beyond that playhouse. In many ways, it might have been more effective to subtract props and set pieces. For example, the Ministry of Culture should probably have more than just a handful of books on an empty shelf, as there were in this production. Alternatively, they could have simply chosen no books at all for the same (if perhaps an even stronger) effect of catalyzing the audience’s imaginations and believing the world before them.
Additionally, the transitions leave one quite jarred, discarded as unimportant moments to rush through before carrying on with the text. Again, as this is such a word-heavy play, the transitions could actually offer ripe opportunities to lend the production a few quiet, imaginatively expansive moments – to help the audience process the previous scene and/or dive even deeper into the world of the play that this specific production is offering.
While there are elements of this production of A Mirror that could benefit from some story-focused fine-tuning, the overall piece was thought-provoking and sincere, and carried by a talented cast. One walks away from A Mirror asking more questions than answers, which, in the melée of London fringe theatre, is a great indicator that the production is on the right track and not to be missed if you’re bumbling about the Stoke Newington area.
This show runs at Tower Theatre until 10th October. Tickets here.