It can't be the best sign of the state of the nation that Barrie Keeffe's
Barbarians is being seen as highly relevant in 2015. There was a
highly acclaimed Tooting Arts Club production only a couple of months ago that I
didn't go to see, because I'd already booked for this one at the Young Vic's Clare:
It's the JMK Award production, which I always try to catch if possible, and
this year's winner Liz Stevenson surrounds the audience with the 1970s world of
Keeffe's three angry young men. A trilogy of one-act plays,
Barbarians opens
with
Killing Time, in which three skinheads have been unemployed for a year
since leaving school, and have just seen their former careers advisor coming out of
the dole office too. It's a grim setting but we're in a for a lot of dark humour as
the trio make a bit of cash a different way: Paul's (Brian Vernel) cousin steals
cars to order, and will pay the boys to call him with tips on where he can find the
model he's looking for.
