These two short plays, accompanied by verbatim testimony from civil rights campaigner Clive Stafford Smith, briskly explore the ascent of remote-controlled warfare.
They ponder the secretive business of targeting, its logistics, its future and its human cost.
The first, by Ron Hutchinson and distinguished journalist Christian Lamb, sketches three US experts who one morning find themselves choosing whether to launch a drone strike against an enemy who’s due to be at a wedding. Their decision is made in the midst of personal turmoil — for instance, jittery adviser Doug (Tom McKay) is locked in an affair with Rose Reynolds’s scathing Meredith.
Whereas this feels a bit like offcuts from the fourth season of Homeland, its companion by David Greig is both more straightforward and more nourishing. It pictures two drone operators and their partners toasting a successful mission — but one that’s caused shameful collateral damage.
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Vigorously performed and efficiently directed (by Nicolas Kent and Mehmet Ergen respectively), these are challenging pieces. Yet despite their different textures they cover very much the same points, and the subject has been handled more chillingly by George Brant’s fine monologue Grounded.
Until Nov 26, Arcola Theatre (020 7503 1646, arcolatheatre.com)
