In an unnerving and slightly unconvincing start, a well presented alpha-male spouted out a terrorist mantra. He asked the audience if we were happy and if we werent we were told to stay and be martyred for the cause of the 'Uber Hate Gang'. The three other members of the gang crowd behind their leader as he explains why they are going to blow up the theatre. The Uber Hate Gang is sick of people being average and achieving nothing with their lives, they now want justice, for people to rise up and take control of their own lives from the oppressive leaders. The audience doesn't run away in fear and decides to die at the hands of a madman rather than waste the ticket money, so a metronome starts counting down the minutes of our lives. At this point the plan faces a problem, when a childrens entertainer and extreme eccentric wanders into the doomed room.The play becomes stronger and stronger from this point on, moving away from being a farce around some deluded terrorists. It becomes a show which examines massive character flaws, how the characters impact upon one another and intense power struggles. The childrens entertainer presents a character that is the opposite of the leading terrorist. He lives to make others happy after life treated him badly, while the other character reacted with hate. Despite the fear of an outside attack upon their cause the real threat comes from within the hate gang itself. In a period of high tension the revelations keep on flowing, the personal intrigue grows stronger and slowly the hate gang come to terms with their warped motivations. While it took a while to build up, the result was a truly explosive conclusion which held the tension and desperate emotions of the room at a constant high for ages. The script demanded blunt characters and thats exactly what the actors delivered. Human delusions, motivations, emotions and reactions are all made blindingly strong to deliver a high octane play.
