The Permanent Way

My first time at the Vaults theater was a pretty eye opening experience. I was expecting a real off-off-west end experience and I got that but it was really wild underneath the Waterloo Station.

In truth, the two plays we were looking at for this night were both housed at this newer theater and event space so we were going to end up here anyway. It was a Shepard play vs a Hare play and we decided on David Hare’s The Permanent Way, a criticism (justified) of the disorganization regarding management of Britain’s Rail System. It was a train play underneath the Waterloo Station — one of the biggest stations in the city and appropriately enough we could hear trains coming in and out. It was not loud but it was there as a sound backdrop.

Finding our way to the small theater meant crossing underneath a tunnel like graffiti walled pathway, where you were greeted with the smell of fresh spray paint and music. I thought I had walked onto a film set for an 80’s rap / breakdancing movie.

The play is good. Several actors play different parts, first detailing facts about the different train systems, their jobs and how the management had been privatized. Hare weaved information leading to different train crashes, that were caused by exactly the same thing with one actor playing the Prime Minister walking onstage proclaiming: “This can never happen again” which he comes back later to reprise, which is a combination of funny and horrific.

As we detail one crash, then another, instead of this bogging down into information overload, the actors changed parts from train employees to crash victim family members and that kept us locked in. We were surrounded by good performances. They continued to take us to different stops, filled with management denial and political face saving. It was theater about another sort of theater and Hare doesn’t let those responsible off the hook. Bravo.

Later, I found out that the graffiti tunnel was founded by Banksy and the area was meant for alternative arts and immersive theater. I felt Hare’s Permanent Way was pretty immersive like feeling the weight underneath a big train station.