Weekly Margin 2024, W10: Flight Risk, The Hunt

3/07/24: Flight Risk

What: Dakota Silvey's new play about three people stranded in the forests of Alaska after their prop plane crashes.

And? full review here

Grace Sallee and Conor Andrew Hall as Andi and Clark. Photo sourced from
Press Kit.

3/09/24: The Hunt

What: St. Ann's Warehouse hosts The Almeida Theatre's play adaptation of the 2012 Danish film about a schoolteacher falsely accused of molesting a young student.

And? Theatrically speaking, I think it's a terrific piece of work, and Tobias Menzies in the lead role manages to deftly balance a man who vigilantly guards his emotions and yet feels and thinks so much. The staging and choral work is powerful and disturbing. I think I just feel conflicted about the subject matter itself. While it is true that children will make up horrible stories without realizing the damage they can do, I worry when the majority of fictionalized stories I see about someone being accused of assault are a false accusation. It contributes to the sense that the majority of these are false and can bring a good man down, and makes it easier to discredit and discount the stories of actual victims and survivors of abuse and assault. I think when society gets to a place where the instinct is not to accuse a woman of being vidictive and fame-hungry, trying to ruin a man's life--as opposed to acknowledging that her life has been ruined and he needs to face consequences--then maybe this story should be told, as a cautionary. But not when the norm is still to believe the man, always the man, before the woman.

I dunno. It's messy. It's good theater but it's a messy thing to wade into.

The cast of The Hunt. Photo by Teddy Wolff.