Now and then we all dream of blowing stuff up, I know I have.  Perhaps that’s why it’s not really very hard to suspend disbelief in this most preposterous of scenarios.  A cell group of four twenty something activists in Auckland, working for their revered leader of the militant left wing sect ‘Gaia’ (purposely or not borrowed from a the excellent 80’s miniseries Edge of Darkness?) purloin a nuclear warhead as ammunition, so to speak, in their negotiations with the government to meet their ideological demands.  

Director Anders Falstie’s original script takes humour over realism at every opportunity, thus we are constantly reminded it’s not real.  The stakes are high, the action’s going down in my own back yard, but ultimately I wasn’t so much drawn in by any element of suspense so much as listening out for the next witty line, of which their are many.  You can get a bit of an idea looking at Chris White’s blockbuster thriller type movie trailer on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOnqaY87voo . 

There are also reflective stretches of non-action, as the characters mull and digest the implications of what they’re doing.  At the risk of sounding like a cracked record, the Herald Theatre’s awkward seating arrangement makes it harder for the audience to keep involved at these inward times without some conscious effort.  However besides those quiet moments making us work a bit more I must commend the work of Falstie and set designer Stephen Bain who actually take the best possible advantage of the difficult space with a split-level stage that separates the radical protesters from the authorities, and a few clever surprises to boot.

Lizzie, played with a cold determination by Jo Lees, is the staunchest, seemingly most ‘trained’ of the group, although it’s her detestably new-age boyfriend Johnny (Rebel Alliance co-founder Michael Downey) who leads the unit.  He has all the typical smug self-importance of middle management, only it’s in a job where he may well stand to destroy a city, killing hundreds of thousands and decimating the environment in the name of humanitarianism and ecology.  Of course, they plan to then return to the earth reborn as the animal of their choice so it’s not that disastrous at all really.

Russell Pickering’s character Peter is a naively idealistic pseudo-intellectual, deadly serious and uptight with an occasional attempt at poetic sensitivity.  Peter is less authoritative than Johnny but equally pompous.  By contrast, as naively pseudo-non-intellectual Lisa, Leisha Ward-Knox gets the most sympathy from us.  This is partly due to her occasional questioning of the validity of their plan, as much as the abundantly charming natural stage energy Ward-Knox always brings to her roles.

As strong and believable as their performances are, we are left to wonder about the backgrounds of these young terrorists – what transpired to bring each of them into the fold?  There is a definite sense of children playing at espionage, matched if not bettered by the Prime Minister (Richard Rugg), a classically sadistic fat prick.  If any one character in the story could hope to convince me that Gaia’s righteousness is justified, it is this odious man. 

A more logically minded authority is Catherine Nola’s Helena, chief of police, expresses an ironic southern man type persona which is an amusing concept but not entirely convincing.  The point behind Helena’s blokeish manner, not to mention her being in the latter stage of pregnancy, is not very clear beyond a vague contrast of life and death, and the hypocrisy of violent law enforcement – ideas also dealt with elsewhere in the play. 

Bain’s set, which I presume extends to the somewhat homemade looking bomb, shows a clear affinity with grimy inner city suburb student flats.  The layout is effective in combination with Bonnie Burrill’s lighting design and Eve Gordon’s soundtrack: as the clock ticks down the bar raises higher with more startling and unexpected theatrical effects so that by the end the audience at large appeared to have been properly entertained. 

Thus, the Rebel Alliance continue in their quest to bring a youthful freshness and originality to the scene of Auckland theatre.  Long may the force be with them.

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