Broken Legs Blog

This blog post was written for Elemental Theatre Company

The year is 2050, and crime has been more or less eradicated, in favour of pre-crime – the act of arresting someone before they commit a crime. This is the premise for Nottingham Playhouse’s new play “Minority Report”, written by David Haig and loosely based on the Philip K. Dick novella.

The play opens with Julie (Jodie McNee), a neuroscientist who is the head of the Precrime Agency, giving a seminar where she explains exactly how the AI determines which people are most likely to commit crime. The seminar is mostly optimistic, with projections showing people living without fear in a crime-free society. That is, until the seminar is interrupted by protestor Fleming (Danny Collins) who shouts about free will and warns the audience of the danger of pre-crime.

The opening scene may be accused of being too much exposition, but this is necessary set-up in order to tell the story that follows, and as such, the rest of the play is easy to follow, helping to avoid potentially confusing concepts. The play kicks up a gear as Julie finds herself accused of pre-murder, and decides to go on the run with the help of her AI assistant David (Tanvi Virmani, who was able to seemingly appear from nowhere at Julie’s command).

What follows is a non-stop 90 minute tale that sees Julie race across a futuristic London, in what I can only describe as an action film live on stage. The set is incredible, smoothly transitioning from Julie’s high-rise apartment to Fleming’s bunker to the basement of Precrime’s offices, never allowing the audience time to breathe or relax as Julie flees from the police. The production even brings to life action sequences such as a high-speed car chase, numerous fight scenes and an escape from the top of a tower block.

Julie is helped in her quest by her husband George (Nick Fletcher as the friendly scientist with a dark secret) and Home Secretary Ralph (Nicholas Rowe). The only problem I had was that I didn’t find Julie particularly likeable – the character was full of anger (and rightly so, considering she was still grieving for her twin sister), which meant that imagining her as a potential murderer was not too much of a stretch.

A number of side characters also help to tell the story, including Ana, whose story was incredibly moving and well-told by Roseanna Frascona. Ricardo Castro puts in a good turn as the villainous Sergeant Harris, as does Xenoa Campbell-Ledgister as Michelle, although her side-plot felt a little superfluous to the rest of the story. Christina (Chrissy Brooke) plays an important role towards the end of the play, although her character is perhaps introduced a little too late in the plot which makes her situation difficult to care about.

Overall, this is a fully engaging, captivating story which led to some great debate on the way home. The final twist is a little predictable, but the production value of the play, the superb set pieces from director Max Webster and production designer Jon Bausor, and the skilful acting on display means that this is a thrilling, white-knuckle ride that will leave you gasping for breath by the end.

Tom Morley, February 2024