A.C. Wilson on "The Viewing Room"

In The Viewing Room, two 'ordinary, decent' people are press-ganged into hosting a condemned prisoner, and given, unbeknown to them, power of life and death over this individual. In our name people are put in prison, in detention camps, in 'secure accomodation', and we imagine the threat of them has been removed from us. Does our responsibility end here? Do we have any kind of power at all to criticise the auto da fe that may condemn a man or a woman to death, incarceration, or sequestration under conditions of extreme prejudice. What do we know of what might be going on in the minds and bodies of either prsioners or those who watch over them? What is the responsibility that society has towards the people it puts out of its sight?

Daniel's play has relevance both to the UK and the US, countries which both incarcerate people at high rates, in some cases in the name of dubious legality (Guantanamo Bay, Belmarsh Prison). In this country, our prisons have been, since last month, 'officially' over-subscribed. We are once again hearing of prison-ships, prison-islands - not to mention reports of brutality within the severely overcrowded institutions already n existence. Maybe one day, we will have to take prisoners into our own homes in order to relieve over-crowding.

The play is claustrophobic. A 'guest' is in residence. He comes from the 'other' side of town - he is 'alien'. He is an unwanted pair of eyes. In Dan's play, he sets a liberal-minded couple into an emotional tail-spin. His presence and the emerging horror of the expectation put upon on Brian and Gab fractures their relationship on many levels.

There are resonances of the dystopian futureworlds of Philip K Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep which gave rise to Bladerunner) which allow us to extrapolate from our present situation. To paraphrase the Dalai Lama - is the present we are creating the future we desire?