14.03.1996

Moral conviction

Paul Greenaway reviews 'The Body Trade', by Deborah Lavin, directed by Lisa Goldman for The Red Room (8.00pm, above The Lion & Unicorn pub, Gaysford Street NW5, £6, £4 concession)

The Red Room exists to “produce high quality work of contemporary relevance” and “predominantly new writing”. This play, by promising new playwright Deborah Lavin, fits the bill perfectly. Considering that this it is a highly political work, this production must count as a success.

The Body Trade is an ambitious work, attempting to incorporate a very wide number of political and moral issues - family breakdown, the corrupting nature of ‘market forces’ on human values, medical ethics and many more. Given this complex interweaving of issues, the danger always existed that The Body Trade might sink under its own political weight, either collapsing into incoherence or hectoring the audience with crude ‘anti-Thatcherite’ polemics (an all too common experience at ‘fringe’ plays these days).

The Body Trade avoids these pitfalls, primarily because Deborah laces the play with humour - albeit of a ‘black’ nature - and never loses track of the central motif: how is it possible to be good in an evil world? I would also argue that another of the play’s strengths lies in its moral conviction. The author is not afraid to tackle moral questions head on and be ‘judgmental’, yet at the same time she is highly aware of the moral ambiguities and paradoxes which confront us all.

All the characters in The Body Trade have been ‘corrupted’, to one degree or another. Not because they are inherently ‘bad’ people, not even because they are excessively weak-minded. Real life, and desperate material circumstances have forced these characters to make choices they would rather not make - if they lived in an ideal world ...

Sid, the working class lad made ‘good’, ends up selling body organs to private hospitals. Why? Because he is devoted to his wife and kids and can think of no other way to maintain their high standard of living. By desiring to do good he ends up doing evil.

The two prostitutes, Pam and Rita, are forced to sell their bodies - the only commodity they have to offer. Pam gets sucked into the ‘body trade’ by Sid, who offers her a glimpse of a better future - for her child, if not for herself. Yet the moral ramifications soon begin to haunt Pam, the ‘immoral’ prostitute.

The only complaint I have is with the rather obvious editing which tended on occasion to obscure the motivations of some of the characters. Overall, an impressive debut.

Paul Greenaway