The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning does three things: it tells the story of Manning’s life; it calls into question the ethics of the army culture in which he found himself; and it seeks to provide an explanation for Manning’s temperament and actions by dramatizing his Welsh schooling.
This National Theatre Wales production certainly succeeds in the first two instances. We’re given a fragmentary picture of Manning’s life, as Tim Price’s script darts from his final torture, to his army training, to his homosexual relationship, to his discovery of malpractice and US cover-ups. At each of these junctures, the moral dilemmas faced by Manning and others in the military are shockingly displayed, as we see the brutality of the training regimes, the systematic bullying inside and across ranks, and the stigma attached to being a homosexual in the army.
What seems slightly out of place, though, is the production’s raison d’etre - the idea that Manning’s radicalisation was a consequence of a quality peculiar to Welsh tuition. The school sections, a message tells us at the beginning of the show, have been made up, whilst ‘everything else is true’. Now, even if we accept this (which seems a pretty shaky thing to do, given that ‘truth’ seems like a bit too nebulous a quality for a work of art to possess) then the production runs into some sticky ground. If the main argument of the play is based on something that has been made up, rather than at least based on factual foundations, then how far can we be expected to accept it?
Manning’s schooling, the play has it, is based on contradiction - the young Bradley learnt about rebellions, uprisings, and radicalism, from the Chartists to Aneurin Bevan, whilst at the same time being expected to submit to the authoritarian demands of his teacher. Manning is already susceptible to insurrection but it’s this culture that really eggs him on, supposedly turning him into a man who would take on the US government. These sections of reimagining are a bit too perfectly prophetic to be true. Which, of course, they aren’t. It’s not hard to see why National Theatre Wales would want to make Manning’s story revolve around his Welshness but I’m not sure it quite stands up.
Appropriately, the production has taken over St Thomas of Aquins’ High School; you have to walk through corridors patrolled by soldiers to an eerie soundtrack before you reach the stage. The direction is full of impressive visuals, not least the excellent moment where Manning releases his files to Wikileaks and the air is filled with sheaves of paper. The throbbing soundtrack, with plenty of Lady Gaga, is occasionally rousing and powerful, but by the end of the show it’s easy to feel a little tired of the flashing lights and booming music.
There’s no doubt considerable skill and clout on display here and the ensemble cast are well drilled to provide the plentiful variety of characters and situations Manning meets and faces. Yet the piece just slightly suffers from its own attribution of fact and fiction.
