The
scenery consists of large red circles, and gigantic fluffy white pom
poms hanging from the ceiling. On a white double bed with red bed
linen a young man, David, sleeps.
Suddenly we realise that
there are other people in the bed as well as hands stick out in all
directions from under the duvet. Clad
in black, David's gleeful bedfellows, Cap and Gag emerge and present
themselves. They represent submicroscopic entities – parts of the
HIV virus struggling for existence. The
black comedy kicks in with their gleeful banter and camaraderie.
This play is packed with witty writing throwing up philosophical
concepts about the concept of self and God and existence. It could be heavy going but Simon Winkler (as Cap) and John de Barham (as Gag) are funny and engaging throughout. | "Viral Sutra cries out to be taken into schools as part of a sex education programme" | |
Simon
Winkler's demonic smile adds a sinister edge to the play while John de
Barham's characterisation of Gag as a naïve "village idiot" is
consistently entertaining. Both
actors pull some extremely amusing facial expressions and both of them
have resonant and well projected voices. The success of this play
pivots on the speedy repartee between the actors and both of them
accomplish this with aplomb. Theatre West
then pull a delightful surprise punch – about 15 minutes into the show
suddenly the particles' friend Pol pops out from under the bed. Actress
Dee Sadler in this role adds a welcome spark to the show as she
explains "sometimes I live under the bed & sometimes I create new
viruses". Indeed she erects an easel on the stage and starts her work as a DNA "copyist" producing a scroll which is the copy DNA. A
bizarre stage fight ensues as they all fight for the scroll. The
unfortunate David (well played by Ryan Stuart) is draped with bed linen
and made to stand so that he looks rather like the Statue of
Liberty.
 | | Fast actors' exchanges make the play |
As
one million Americans have AIDs and countless others are unknowingly
HIV positive, Theatre West has thrown up a very potent image here. Packed
with jokes, Viral Sutra uses comedy to convey a very serious message
with the particles' expressing the view "Condoms – evil things.
Thank God for ignorance and superstition". The
actors perform a well synchronised and choreographed dance routine in
this show which lifts the energy level of the show exactly where it is
needed. Pol then does an axe
swinging scene and Dee Sadler deserves full credit for what must have
been an absolutely exhausting routine. She
also brings out the quality of the writing itself when the others ask
her if she will kill babies and old people too. She looks at the
audience and says "I'll kill all of them in time and if I
don't one of the others will". Viral Sutra
is a short choppy play relevant to our modern times. Director
Alison Comley has taken on a task many would baulk at. She
has been helped by the excellent set design of Ann Stiddard and Colin
Williams and by an energetic cast who work well together. She
has made a tyrannically demanding script full of difficult medical
terminology look easy – as easy as it is to contract HIV.
Viral Sutra cries out to be taken into schools as part of a sex
education programme. | 
