Drama is well served by radio – more so, it can be argued, than television. Radio takes risks to experiment, to play with imagination, to try out performances and productions that might never be seen or heard by the general public, except, of course, in a theatre. Popular television tends to drift between costume dramas and thrillers, ignoring for the most part challenging avant-garde productions.
Drama on 3 is a vehicle for interesting and stimulating work and it allocated two hours to the Tricycle Theatre Company to give artistic explanations of the history of war in Afghanistan. In a sequence of four short plays, with The Great Game as the umbrella title, we were given perspectives on a troubled country, invaded, irritated, exploited and exasperated by foreign interests, politicians and armies.
It was a mixed bag.
Bugles at the Gates of Jalalabad was part-narration by a general’s wife and part-soapy exchanges between a few surviving soldiers, buglers on guard, who struggled to agree on the reason they were fighting the war. “It was God’s will”, said one.“ A mission to kill savages”, said another. “Just following orders from mistaken decision-makers”, volunteered a third.
In Miniskirts of Kabul, set in the 1990s, there was a clunky interview between a female writer and the Afghan president from within a United Nations safe haven under pressure from the threat of a Taliban assault. It was an odd blend of political debate and conversational fluff ranging from the president’s vision for his country to his obsession with the Spice Girls. We even had a sequence of him singing along to the girlie troupe, an odd juxtaposition of passions, but perhaps the point was to reflect a kind of normality in among the serious stuff.
Honey focused on the CIA trying to pave the way for the United States to resume intervention in Afghanistan. In 2001, an agent attempted to convince resistance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, the so-called Lion of Panjshir, to collaborate with the Americans against the Taliban. The negotiations failed but the drama, particularly between Massoud and the CIA agent, was tense and well handled, showing that different perspectives of vision and ideology can separate even people broadly on the same side.
The final play in the quartet was Canopy of Stars. Two soldiers talked about their lives, their service in the army and their reasons for fighting in a foreign country. Reminiscences covered Oldham, chips and gravy, girlfriends, soldiers’ wages and the enemy. By far, it came across as the most honest, realistic piece, because it gave a strong sense of what frontline troops probably talk about to pass the time.
It was a no-nonsense, blunt, effing and blinding insight into the kind of conversation two lads might have on holiday or in the pub.
But the reality of the war zone location kept reminding listeners that these soldiers would either return home to deal with the aftermath or be carried back in coffins. On his return to Britain, one of the soldiers had a heated argument with his wife who wanted him to agree not to go back to war for the sake of their marriage and their son. He seemed unable to make a clear decision, torn between continuing the good, positive work being done by troops and a normal life as husband and father.
Individually, each of the four plays had merits but collectively they were quite powerful, exploring aspects of Afghanistan’s troubled past, present and, undoubtedly, its future. If you are looking for interesting choices and diversity, it is well worth keeping an ear on Drama on 3.
