Play: Eye of a Needle

Eye of a Needle has been getting a lot of publicity lately. I'd have gone to see it last week, but wasn't feeling well the night I'd planned to go. When I checked for this week, I discovered a Living Social offer for tickets - £10 instead of £18 regular price - starting tonight. Yes, sometimes it does pay to join these things. So tonight it was, at last!

Southwark Playhouse was the venue. I've been here a couple of times before, and it's not bad to get to, when you know how - Tube to Elephant & Castle, take the university exit, and when you get outside, turn left onto Newington Causeway. It's just past the bridge, on the right. Takes about 45 minutes from my place. Mind you, the outside sign was off when I arrived, but all was as normal inside.

This play is showing in "The Little" - there's also a "large" theatre. In both, seating is unreserved. It wasn't quite full, but very nearly - booking might not be necessary (not on a Tuesday night at least!) but arriving early is advisable. People arriving after me had great trouble finding seats, particularly if they wanted to sit together. Seating is on (upholstered) benches - comfy enough, and with back support, but snug, as we were crammed together. Note: the plastic seats in the centre of the room are props. Just in case you're tempted!

Well now, this is a play set in a London immigration office. Given that information, and the title, you can tell immediately which side the author takes. UKIP would hate it. We have five characters, all brilliantly portrayed. Two are immigration officials - the older, cynical, world-weary manager and the younger, floppy-haired, fellow working for him and somewhat overwhelmed. Then there's the hardworking young lawyer who represents asylum seekers, and two black Jamaicans, fleeing persecution for homosexuality back home; one intelligent and articulate, the other less so.

The set is sparse and grubby. Rows of plastic chairs fill the centre of the stage - symbolically, the actors spend a substantial portion of their time weaving around them, rather than using them. A row of decrepit phones lines a wall, underneath which are piles and piles of paper, in no apparent order. Standard civil service, then. The young immigration official is intermittently hilarious at the beginning, as he struggles to keep up appearances while nursing a hangover, and generally wishes he were somewhere else. His boss is generally lenient. The lawyer is infuriated by the system, and appalled at the young official's lack of professionalism. The asylum seekers are, respectively, nervous and irritated.

But by the end of the play, you'll have changed your opinion of every character - for better or worse. The acting is terrific, the drama unfolds viscerally, and the play touches on many aspects of the immigration process - which, needless to say, doesn't come out of this terribly well. It's a damning indictment of a system that forces people to such lengths - on both sides. Compelling viewing - ends Saturday, so hurry!

The Scoop, that free venue I'm so fond of, runs films in September. This year, the only one on the program that I haven't seen is Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom - showing tomorrow. So I think I'll mosey along to that, get a seat if I can..