Just looking at the prop combat knife at the centre of Fleeto strikes fear into your heart – especially when writer Paddy Cunneen reveals it was taken from a Glasgow knife amnesty box.
But then fear is the point of such a vicious weapon.
“Those big aggressive knives aren’t the kind of thing people get stabbed with very often,” says Cunneen. “They’re often for show, the intent is to make someone back down.
“The real danger is from the smaller 3in, 4in or 5in kitchen knives which do real damage.
“From a dramatic point of view it is helpful to have an image like the big knife, although it’s not really the truth about knife crime.”
Having built the two plays from extensive research, and contributions from Strathclyde police and young offenders, it’s fair to say the rest of these two plays is pretty accurate.
Fleeto was inspired by the rise of knife crimes in Glasgow, the city where the story is based.
“Fleeto is the story of a young lad who ends up running with a gang for misguided reasons,” says Cunneen. “Before he knows what he’s done he is put in a position where he stabs and kills someone.”
The boy meets the mother of his victim as she walks the streets of Glasgow, distraught with her loss, and has to find common ground with her.
Its companion piece was written after Cunneen’s company, Tumult In The Clouds, took the play on a tour taking in Polmont Young Offenders’ Institute, where many of Scotland’s knife crime criminals end up.
“When we talked about the play they wanted to know more about this minor character called Wee Andy,” says Cunneen.
“They saw him as very much like them. They were youngsters growing up in a culture of violence, where the opportunities to opt out are limited. You can either be the victim or the perpetrator. These are places where life is really tough.”
Wee Andy, which welcomes back some of the characters from Fleeto including malevolent gang leader Kenzie, takes the point of view of the surgeon who has to stitch up the results of the gang wars and starts to question why.
It uses red rubber bands to create a pretty graphic and unforgettable image of Wee Andy’s face after an attack.
Cunneen is keen to point out that the two plays aren’t victims of “soap opera realism”.
“Both use iambic pentameter – Shakespearean verse structure – so they are quite theatrical in their language,” he says.
“They are not just issue plays, they are fully rounded theatrical experiences.”
In Fleeto he draws parallels with Homer’s Iliad – another tale about a gang (of Greeks) who go after a gang of Trojans because of a girl – while the mother of Wee Andy carries out an act worthy of Greek tragic heroine Medea to protect her son.
The style is deliberately minimalist to allow the audience to create the world surrounding the characters.
“One of the things theatre does best is when it invites the audience to construct the world and reality,” says Cunneen. “It gives the audience more to do and throws the focus on the actors, giving them room to deliver.”
It has clearly worked. Fleeto and Wee Andy were the recipients of the first Brighton Fringe Emerging Talent Award at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe 2011, the source of their invitation down South.
And the company has just returned from Adelaide Fringe Festival, following a similar invitation, where actress Pauline Knowles, who plays the mothers of Fleeto and Wee Andy, earned the best theatre performer award.
The Nightingale, above Grand Central, Surrey Street, Brighton, Wednesday, May 16, to Sunday, May 20
Fleeto starts 7pm, Wee Andy starts 8.30pm, tickets £8.50/£6.50 each.
Call 01273 917272.
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