Sequestered alone in drab call-centre bunker with a telephone console, Russel Tovey plays Joe, a police officer who seemingly has been demoted to this desk job responding to 911 emergency calls. Wound as tight as a spring, Tovey brings a full-throttle intensity to this almost one-man psychological thriller.
Phone calls are placed and received at a rapid-fire pace – we can barely catch our breath between calls, and neither can Joe. That seems to be the point that playwright Chloë Moss is making here. Tovey brings a fraught urgency to every call, whether it’s an incoming call from the public or one he places to his police buddy, ex-wife or six-year-old daughter, whom he desperately wants to see.
Joe becomes embroiled in one particular emergency that may involve kidnapping, spousal abuse and child protection. To add to the intensity, Joe is due to appear at some kind of court hearing the following day – presumably the cause of his reassignment from the beat to this isolated desk job. Director Felix Barrett allows the intensity to build and then subside as Tovey juggles his need to save the caller with his own response to what is happening, while seemingly trying to redress some past wrong that we only learn about towards the end of the play.
The evening is full of shifts and surprises, especially when the screen at the back of the stage falls in the final moments to reveal additional elements of this multi-layered production.
Whether it’s the flickering lights inside the bunker, the sounds that surround Joe’s callers, or the amplified noise of his water cooler, the sound and lighting design add to the intensity of the evening. There are a few oddities – particularly the fact that Joe is working alone as a police emergency responder, which seems somewhat odd, and the blurring of his professional distance in saving two children also feels over-dramatised for effect.
Yet despite these quibbles, the show is a successful psychological thriller that packs a punch.
The Guilty
Written by: Chloë Moss
Directed by: Felix Barrett
Cast: Russell Tovey
Designer: Alex Eales
Lighting Designer: Anna Watson
Sound Designer: Gareth Fry
Played until 15 August
Running time: 90 minutes without interval
Photo Credit: Helen Murray