Simon Ward reviews Put Out His Eyes at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre

Writer Michael Hajiantonis’s Put Out His Eyes is a fairytale set in a distant past with an undercurrent of pent-up rage and resentment which feels apposite for our modern world in which none of the old certainties can be relied upon. Under the direction of Michael Zwiauer, Hannah Omisore as the Princess and Daniel Morris as the Peasant play out a drama of psychological intrigue and menace. It is a play where the power structures swirl and reconfigure throughout, as each one learns more about the other. Their world is highly stratified – the Peasant cannot even look at the Princess, nor should he talk to her until she grants him leave. Yet she has depended on him to rescue her from the City which has been invaded and is being ransacked before their eyes. He it was who knew a place of safety where they could avoid capture; he has their only weapon, such as it is; he too is the only one with any food. Yet still they each maintain the social order where the Princess must have supremacy – it appears that they can hardly imagine doing anything else.

The stage is bare, with minimal lighting. The sound effects of the overthrow and destruction of the City are effective – we really believe that something has been destroyed. And the effect of that realisation on the protagonists is the heart of the drama. Hannah Omisore powerfully evokes the haughty grandeur of royalty, and the wily cunning that underpins it. Daniel Morris is utterly convincing as a man who has been downtrodden so long that he can barely conceive of any other life for himself.

What does it mean if the City is gone, with all its hallowed rules laid down by the Founders? Are they to be the new Founders? Yet that would mean breaking the deeply-ingrained taboos which have rules their entire lives. How do they know what is the right thing to do now? The world they have come from is draconian – a thief has their hands cut off; anyone who looks on Royalty has their eyes put out. Surely that is too cruel a regime to maintain if starting again? And what of the people in the legendary Glade in the Woods beyond the Mountains – forbidden territory in the past, yet perhaps an opportunity for the future?

As these questions are teased out, and more details of their past lives come to light, their relationship is constantly changing. Truth, lies, myths and legends intertwine in a newly made land where nothing is as it was and nothing is necessarily as it seems. This is a troubling and intriguing piece, which makes us question how we might behave, or should behave, in a world turned upside down.

Put Out His Eyes is running at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre, 42-44 Gaisford St, London NW5 2ED until 1st February