Conspiracy or cock-up?

First appeared: Evening Star, Ipswich, November 13, 2005

Devil's Advocate by Donald Freed
Colchester Mercury Studio until November 19

ON Christmas Eve 1989, with US troops over-running his country, the former dictator of Panama, General Manuel Noriega, sought refuge in the Vatican embassy.

Poor Noriega. After 30 years as an American lackey, he was forsaken by his old paymasters and left in the hands of an old Jesuit.

And now, to compound the indignity, he is made to be the mouthpiece of Donald Freed's unfocused rant against American power, Vatican influence - in fact, the whole charade known loosely as Western civilisation.

This isn't a play, it's a history lesson. At times, it is almost a brilliant one. But it suffers from one fatal flaw.

Freed's exposé of American super-hypocrisy, neatly tying together the drugs trade, the arms trade and the cash base of capitalism, is ingenious. It ought to be convincing.

So why has he put it in the mouth of a ruthless, drug-running killer?

A bizarre, throwaway claim about the death of Pope John Paul I reveals Noriega as a crazed conspiracy theorist. This rather undermines Freed's own conspiracy theories.

And then there is the curious question of the colour of Noriega's underwear - in which he is revealed as a blatant liar.

Finally, he becomes a lost little boy. Perhaps this is Freed's idea of character development. Not a good idea.

In short, this is a poor play - which is a shame, because the premise is highly promising and some of the ideas fascinating.

It also seems a waste of acting, direction and staging that are right up to the Mercury Company's usual superb standard.

Ignatius Anthony's great achievement is to have you at times almost believing in this Noriega.

I only wonder why he has to labour with a cod South American accent when the equally excellent Peter Dineen is allowed to play the Basque inquisitor as a homely Irish priest.

The real Noriega, I am sure, thoroughly deserved his 40-year jail sentence. These two fine actors certainly deserve better material.