In 2007, Ali Shalah, who had been a detainee at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, gave testimony about his torture there. In his statement, he referred to the part of the prison where prisoners were held: it was called "Fiji Land". Nick Gill's quite-hard-to-watch play is set in a prison where three military men watch over their detainees: several rows of pot plants.
After all there is a war on, and what they are doing is contributing to making the world a safer place. Or are they? All they must do is follow orders, even if that includes not feeding and watering the last row, whose limp green leaves curl. As the mouthy one of the trio observes, wasn't following orders "the Nazis' excuse?".
Plants are definitely harmed in the staging of Fiji Land. This may be the only time you will ever see a pot plant waterboarded. Using plants to represent people is a smart conceit and one that lends a touch of the surreal to proceedings which unfold in a harshly lit space suggesting, with its polythene sheeting on the walls and floors, both a factory and an abattoir.
Soon all the watching, combined with isolation and lack of agency, begins to take its toll on the trio and their behaviour becomes increasingly bizarre and abusive. They've got nowhere to go, and neither does the play so that watching takes a bit of a toll on us too. The pot-plant conceit is clever but blunt, and the play signals its destinations right from the start. But Alice Malin's production keeps the tension pretty tight and the suppressed nervous energy of the writing is fully exploited by actors Jake Ferretti, Stephen Bisland and Matthew Trevannion.
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