Sanctuary is a one-act play set in a very near future dystopia.
Specifically, the play is set in February 2025, in Portland, Oregon. Regarded as a bastion of American liberalism, and itself a Sanctuary City, it is perhaps surprising that the background to this piece of theatre is based on true events from 2020 which took place there.
On that occasion, a Black Lives Matter protest was counter-protested. Matters escalated, and downtown Portland became a battleground. The off-stage actions in this play take those true events and map them onto a possible future where right-wing ‘patriots’ may feel emboldened to riot in the streets once again.
The unifying factor that links the recent factual past, and this potentially fictional future is President Trump, and his political fortunes.
Seemingly written mindful that Trump could win the 2024 election, as he indeed has, what could have been a bleak but ultimately probably baseless cautionary tale, instead now comes with a worryingly large presumption that much of what we are shown here could be about to become many people’s lived reality.
Cassie (Laura Shipier Chico) is hiding in her basement. In the streets surrounding her property, groups of men from the ‘Patriot Boys’ maurade along the streets. Armed with guns, grenades, and a sense that they can do no wrong, the men are on the rampage.
Cassie is, in an American understanding, left-wing. She believes that people who aren’t cis, straight white men should have rights, and feels a bit uneasy about the proliferation of guns owned by the residents of Oregon.
Whilst Cassie is at pains to reassure that it is Not All Men which are the problem, she is aware that, in her experience, it is enough of them to place her into a seemingly permanent state of anxiety and ultra-cautious behaviours. All of which goes some way to explain why she is trying to remain undiscovered.
Joining her is Amelia, known as Amy (Andrea Milton-Furlotti). Originally from Texas, Amy has spent most of her life in Portland, and her and Cassie have been friends since their school days.
Here, ‘Texan’ has been used as shorthand for ‘conservative’, and, it is implied ‘Republican’, although neither woman’s specific voting choices is defined during the play.
However, reflecting an overall lack of nuance, Amy is conservative, scornful of feminism, and uses the phrase ‘boys will be boys’ with no sense of irony, or, unfortunately, critical thinking.
Given the lack of nuance, Milton-Furlotti has the harder task here. She manages to give Amy some light and shade, and if we don’t like her, we do at least root for her to come to her senses. And perhaps just read even a Wikipedia article, rather than blindly believing everything Fox News tells her.
The suggestion seems to be that anyone who is an ‘other’ who voted for the never-named Trump needs to just come to their senses and see that they were wrong. It’s just all too simplistic for what in reality is a complex situation.
It can be hard to understand someone who has a political stance that is in direct opposition to our own, and which seems to display a total lack of empathy for anyone from any minority whatsoever. This play is probably not going to help convince anyone ‘on the wrong side’ that they, well, are.
It’s also hard to know who the intended audience for this play is. Staged in a pub theatre in north London, the audience here is overwhelmingly female presenting, and almost certainly aware of the issues being discussed.
If the intention is to take the piece to other venues, then that sense of the connection being aimed for needs to be stronger.
On a more positive note, it’s lovely to see two women in their forties represented on stage, and the play also passes the Bechdel Test, in that the two women do discuss something other than men. That so much media still fails to leap this most basic of hurdles shows why we still need to push women’s stories in media.
Jerry Chater’s very strong sound design lends an at times disconcerting sense of claustrophobia to the piece. The off-stage rioters, never seen in this two-hander, are menacing. We never forget that they are lurking, ready to break, enter, loot and riot at any moment. Chater’s work helps to deliver the required tense atmosphere with aplomb, and with timing around the on-stage action.
There are some genuinely funny moments in the script, but overall there’s too much telling, and not quite enough showing.
It should also be noted that there are content warnings inplace for violence, sexual assault, and domestic violence, amongst others. All of them are warranted in a play that doesn’t hesitate to try to cover uncomfortable topics.
There’s an intriguing idea here, it’s just unfortunate that it’s too close to reality right now. If this was set in a dystopia a decade from now, when, hopefully, the dust will have settled on the reality of all of this, then this might be interesting, and have the benefit of hindsight to really be able to say something. As it is, this often feels like an exercise in Shouting into the Abyss.
The frustration is real, and understandable, but it fails to translate effectively.
Sanctuary continues at the Hope Theatre, above the Hope & Anchor pub on Upper Street, Islington, until Saturday, November 30
Featured Image Credit: Christine Rose
