Haneef in Breef
You won’t expect any film rights to apply to the Commonwealth Sewerage Act of 1928. “No Harry Potter there,” jokes the Federal cop, played by Simon King.
But anti-terrorism is a different septic tank altogether. As dry as the Senate paper may be, playwright Graham Pitts has applied his highlighter to the document, mixing its language with a key transcript from Brisbane Watchhouse, 2007.
The transcript charts the 12-day quizzing of Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef, a Bangalore lad snared at Brisbane Airport in July 2007 for his suspected links to the Glasgow car-bomb of the same period.
The result of this bureaucratic cocktail – blending Act with Transcript – is Haneef: The Interrogation, currently playing at Melbourne’s La Mama, with King as cop, and Adam McConvell playing Haneef. And the mix works its Potter-like magic.
Instead of stand-off, or shout-fest, the evening is a chance to meet two human beings caught up in history. A tired and tongue-tied doctor, and a growingly jaded inquisitor. We hear their frustrations, flashes of rapport, tacit hostilities – it’s great theatre, with a dynamic set and inventive use of media to reinforce its strengths.
Pitts’ theatric instincts - reducing 6000 questions to 60 engaging minutes - and the mercurial workshopping from Gorkem Acaroglu has spared the script from static ‘he-said/he-said’ drudgery. The dialogue flexes, reverts, springs forward. A masterful touch is having the characters occasionally slip from their roles to footnote a moment during the brain-drain – though Haneef gets a disproportion of these.
Not sure if the off-stage moments work as well – the shouting match behind the set before the players take stage, and the mid-play impasse where both actors storm for the wings. But such touches symptomise the piece’s determination to wriggle loose of red tape, allowing the audience to feel the pulse behind the name Haneef.
McConville in particular is so Bangalore his jump-out moments will disarm you, while King has a necessary edge of federal menace. Such performances, plus the innovative direction and a striking set, ensure this potent cocktail of a script will ask questions way beyond La Mama’s walls.