Deathwatch, theatre review: Weightily poetic

Deathwatch was Jean Genet’s first play and when it premiered in 1949 hinted at one of his enduring obsessions — the isolation of the condemned. It’s a claustrophobic portrait of three prisoners confined in a single cell, tracing the jagged contours of their arguments, fantasies and insults.

Tom Varey is murderer Green-Eyes, who’s waiting to be guillotined and perches in a corner of the cell like a bird of prey. He’s a charismatic figure, though frequent references to another inmate, Snowball, make it clear that his dominant status is precarious. He’s involved in a triangular relationship with petty thief Lefranc, whose eagerness to impress is nicely captured by Danny Lee Wynter, and Maurice, a teenager played by Joseph Quinn as a wild and provocative flirt.

For this revival, David Rudkin has reworked a translation he wrote in 1987. Its tone is weightily poetic. Director Geraldine Alexander has located the prisoners’ cage inside a plushly curtained circus ring, which makes the audience feel like thrill-seeking voyeurs, and ethereal interludes involving Emma Naomi’s prison guard do justice to Genet’s demand that the play should “unfold as in a dream”.

Another of Genet’s instructions was that the actors “deaden their voices”, and while the performances here are full-bodied the play itself seems oddly sluggish. Despite Alexander’s efforts to inject vitality it’s often static, and the author’s desire to glorify criminals leaves a sour taste.

Until May 7, Print Room (020 3642 6606, the-print-room.org)

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