With the Edinburgh Festival resembling a veritable hive of political dramas, we take a brief look at the productions that are creating the loudest buzzzzzzzpp zzzzp bzzzzzzzzz buzz.

Deep Cut is the play causing the biggest wave at the moment. With an evocative shot of Rhian Blythe in full military uniform stretched across the front page of the Stage, one could be forgiven for thinking that they’d picked up a national newspaper reporting a new military enquiry or something by mistake. What’s really interesting is that this might turn out to be not all that far from the truth.

Up for a stack of awards, the play produced by The Sherman Cymru Theatre Company retells the tragic deaths of four young army cadets at the Deepcut Barracks in Surrey. Insistent that the coroner’s conclusive ’suicide’ verdict is not the end of the story, nor happy that the reports of institutionalised bullying have largely gone un-addressed, this very powerful and domestic play seems hell bent on reopening the case and forcing an in-depth enquiry into the whole unpleasant affair. What’s more, when the real Des James (the father of Cheryl James who was killed at Deepcut) took to the modest stage at the Traverse Theatre to read the final monologue, a flood of reports have testified to the immense power and drive of the piece. With this startling display of strength and composure, the attention of the national press is focussed on the production and, consequently, at the very real tragedy that stands behind it.

Deep Cut is clearly a very serious piece about a very serious event and has been received as such. Other attempts at political theatre have not quite been so successful…

For example, we touched on this in a previous blog but, the Pleasance Courtyard’s staging of The Factory certainly needs a mention. A hi-octane shout fest, The Factory is about the final few moments of a prisoner’s life at Auschwitz. Attempting to somehow re-imagine the horror of the experience, the cast of the play bang metal shutters, shout and scream in the audience’s faces and generally just try to be as beastly and unpleasant as possible. Seemingly devoid of the complexity or the nuances of character that the real experience must have thrown up, The Factory feels about as political as a swift kick in the nuts.

Not exactly realpolitik is it…

Another political pitfall would seem to be the American/Scottish hybrid Architecting which apparently attempts to tie together the story of Gone With the Wind with the reports of Hurricane Katrina. A little unpicking is needed here: so, let me get this straight, they’re mixing the plot of a film that depicts events from the American Civil War with fictionalised accounts of the hurricane that hit New Orleans? A made up story that focusses on the lives of two made up characters during the real burning of Atlanta, which is in Georgia, in like 1864; and a natural disaster that really really happened in 2005 in New Orleans, which is in Louisiana. Errmmm…whassthatabout?

Well, apparently, Architecting is about the deep roots of racial discrimination verses the natural trend for historical revisionism. Hmm? Yes, it’s said to be a little on the clunky side (there’s a surprise) but there’s some okay performances… we’ll see.

So what have we learnt? Well, Edinburgh is, as per, awash with political statements being made left, right and centre; naturally some good, some not so good. Certainly shows like Deep Cut are causing a fairly serious stir with their honest and thoughtful intention. At their best, plays like Deep Cut exhibit what is truly remarkable about live theatre; that stories can be told with a dignity and intensity that is impossible in any other field, and that theatre still has teeth and can question and fight when it so wishes. At worst… well, let’s just be thankful no greased-up young drama students took to the stage naked and ate 150 bananas to show the de-humanising effect of capitalism or something.