Upstaged Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Reviewer: Daniel Shipman
Chris Thorpe has a well-established reputation for making affecting, issues-driven theatre. In A Family Business, he turns his attention to nuclear weapons, warning us of the danger but also pointing out some potential glimmers of hope in the form of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
Unfortunately, the effect here is basically just a man ranting on stage for 105 minutes. It’s like your mate has read a few too many Guardian articles at once and is now telling you about how bad nuclear weapons are over a few pints at the pub. There was very little theatricality about these sections and, whilst Thorpe is a gifted and compelling orator, I’m not sure that this skill carries him through such extended periods of talking about something that most right-minded people – and certainly the vast majority of people who would buy tickets to a show like this – would already be aware of and would agree with him on.
There are a couple of occasions where Thorpe uses some interesting rhetorical techniques to bring home the scale of destruction that would be caused by nuclear war. A projected map with coloured rings shows the area of differing types of carnage that would result from even a small bomb being dropped on HOME’s theatre, which was chilling yet effective. A different segment footage of the 2020 explosion in Beirut, and uses this to illustrate how many times more destructive a modern nuke would be.
This production does raise the opposing viewpoint that nuclear weapons are actually essential for our safety as mutually assured destruction is the only effective deterrent. It does this via a series of scenes set around the UN, as a character works to get enough signatories to the TPNW so that it can be passed into international law. The three characters in these scenes are mainly broad-brush constructs designed to represent the global south, the European elite, and the 9 states that currently have active nuclear arsenals. The scenes are mostly slightly baffling, with some accent work on display which is questionable to the point of being distracting. The characters are also given a hint of a backstory, which felt entirely unnecessary. They added nothing to the story, and muddied the idea that they are more concepts than three-dimensional characters.
There are the beginnings of some interesting ideas here – Thorpe alludes to non-state actors potentially creating their own nukes, or the threat of nuclear warning systems being hacked and manipulated. None of these are pursued though, with far too much time being spent on the minutiae of diplomacy and the scale of devastation just a button away. Mostly though, I just felt that I was being told what I already knew – nukes are bad, and if one gets dropped on us then we’re all stuffed.
– Daniel Shipman
A Family Business runs at HOME Manchester until Saturday 2 March 2024.