The week in theatre: Manhunt; Jab – review

Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court; Park theatre, London Robert Icke’s pulsating new drama about the 2010 hunt for killer Raoul Moat boasts a powerhouse performance from Samuel Edward-Cook. And a sharp-edged Covid vax drama fails to inject enough nuanceRobert Icke goes on disrupting, reinventing what we see on stage. His new production, Manhunt, does not have the sleek incisiveness of the superb Oedipus with which he lit up the theatre last year: it sprawls, tries to lasso too much, is sometimes overexpository. Yet it is coruscating. It transmits indelible images. Not moving but transfixing.Manhunt is a departure for Icke: a modern, real-life story that he has written as well as directed. This is a portrait of Raoul Moat, who in 2010 shot his former partner, killed her lover, blinded a policeman and caused one of the biggest manhunts in British history. He was described by the then prime minister David Cameron as “a callous murderer, full stop, end of story” – and glorified on Facebook. Drawing on Moat’s own words (he wrote a 49-page letter to Northumbria police), Icke abstains from simple condemnation (superfluous) or sentimental exculpation. He does what theatre does best: embody a human being, not dilute him into case history, horror or sob story. Continue reading...

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