It can be dangerous to separate the idea of evil from humanity, and 10 Rillington Place handled this excellently.
The pace is slow and consistent, trundling along like the old man himself, until sudden bursts of energy later in the performance which are genuinely rattling. These moments should have been complimented by the occasional overlapping soundscape consisting of a crying baby and a desperate mother, but sadly they were in fact let down by it. The recorded background sounds came off as a bit more Drama GCSE than hard-hitting dark theatre.
There were other unsteady moments, for example Christie’s one sided conversations with his “patients”. However, ultimately the anecdotal nature of the play enabled this to work: the killer’s patients made a larger impact as empty seats, ghosts, than they would have as physical bodies. The lack of these physical bodies also steered the production away from an unnecessary focus on gore.
What was admirable in the end was an acceptance of the very human nature of evil. It can be dangerous to separate the idea of evil from humanity, and 10 Rillington Place handled this excellently. The exploration of the memories and motivations of Christie did not try to make him into the trope of an evil character – not all murderers are Silence of the Lambs-esque mad men wearing skins in the basement. In presenting his human thoughts and emotions, the production addressed the potential for evil in all of us.
And for this it was all the more disturbing. If you are in search of a raw, sobering performance which is in need of fifty minutes of close concentration, this is the play for you.
