NOT SPAIN by Sheffield Firemans Room Theatre Company

Not Spain is based in the Balkans at the height of the media interest in the conflict.The director mentions the myriad of understandings which the break up of the region fostered.Each based on heartfelt nuances of various ethnic groupings relations with others , some working to forge a multi-ethnic society capable of thriving into the new century, others led by ancient bitterness , making fertile pleas for a situation nothing short of ethnic cleansing.

A Man suffering Balkan style meets a Western reporter he assisted by , apparently, relieving her of the camera she carried ,at a checkpoint where the possession of a camera at the time may have resulted if her being relieved of her life had she been spotted by the gun-totting guards.She , herself, is suffering in a very Western way , everything is waiting for her at home materially ( including a boyfriend) , but emotionally and spiritually all in empty inside , a void that no material possessions can fill.

He relates a situation that occurred in Littlehampton.A Macedonian restaurant he was working in at the time Karadzic was standing trail at the Hague for the massacre of several thousand civilians at Srebrenica he was most surprised whenever the name of the war criminal was mentioned the staff would chant in a pro-patria manner "Serbu!, Serbu!".This makes the director wonder , not surprisingly , why Macedonians would be so partial to Serb nationalists killing members of non-Serbian populations in Bosnia.The director is caught between wondering if colleagues have a more nuanced sensitive understanding of the region. Maybe it is a parallax-mystery , or maybe still that the colleagues the director worked with were appreciative of any , even non-Macedonian that killed and murdered Muslims was worthy of the highest acclamations and cheerful appreciation.

The playwright , in his case, seeks to explore the pornography of suffering style intrusion for voyeuristic purposes the western media engaged in as well as the condescending lack of depth analysis of the conflict , this exploration is summed up when the local admits to having given the journalists an account that is closer to the "story" the media editors want as opposed to the truth " You want to me to tell you that the way you live is right , the way we live is wrong , and if only we were more like you , everything is right.".The drama also looks at the hypocritical attitude of Western Democracies which allowed a situation in which large European cities were surrounded by armies enacting world war 2 style bombing and sieges for over 2 years whilst the entrapped population appealed for rescue to much public empathy , though no political will.I wonder how long it would have took the West to mobilise if a Christian city of a quarter of a million was being besieged by a Muslim Army?

The set is sparse , as one would expect , and the acting is constrained by the audience forming a large arc around the stage.This makes the standing positions the gallant actors are compelled to adopt extremely difficult to affect the closeness between them the play demands.Though crueler persons than i would say this play would have been ideal to stage in mid-December , so that the actors could be chopped up to make a warm homely fire , i have nothing but admiration of these fine students performing a piece in trying circumstances.