Review: Is This A Room at Studio Underground

Review by Tatum Stafford

US Air Force veteran Reality Winner underwent an FBI interrogation at home in 2017, after she was found to have leaked a classified document that exposed Russian hackers’ interference in the 2016 presidential election.

What Reality would not have known until 2019, however, is that the entire transcript of this interrogation would be transformed into a play in 2019, premiering off-off-Broadway before making its way to the Great White Way and eventually arriving in Perth for the 2025 Perth Festival. 

From the outset, the premise of the show is an incredibly interesting one. The cast is comprised of four actors: Reality Winner (Susannah Perkins), and three FBI agents (Pete Simpson, Will Cobbs and Becca Blackwell), all of whom interplay and overlap as they reenact the real-life investigation – ‘umms’, stuttering, and coughing included. 

The story took place on a very bare stage with a few steps, which kept us enraptured in the actors’ pacing and in-depth character work. Tina Satter, the show’s creator and director, has employed naturalistic blocking that turns starkly claustrophobic as the FBI’s case is slowly unveiled to the audience through the detailed interrogation. It’s a truly gripping piece of theatre, and a masterclass in dramatic tension and dialogue. The performers are a tight ensemble, with Susannah Perkins 

Composer Sanae Yamada’s score is suitably unsettling and very atmospheric. Thomas Dunn’s lighting design, particularly in the latter half of the show, is stark and jolting; a perfect encapsulation of the tense plot. I also really enjoyed Enver Chakartash’s costuming, and the sculptural work by Amanda Villalobos (no spoilers, but it’s pet-related).

Though the subject matter is quite disconcerting on paper, the show has a smattering of comedic moments that land beautifully, including busy work by the agents as they survey Reality’s house and converse with one another, and awkward (and naturalistic) segues of dialogue when they chat about everything from CrossFit to dogs in the process of obtaining answers and the truth. 

Given the current global and political climate, this show feels timely as ever, and it was a treat to catch it in such an intimate space in Perth. It only had a short run at the festival, but if the chance arises to catch it onstage in future, it’s a truly intriguing and illuminating piece of theatre that I’d highly recommend, whether you have a keen interest in politics and current affairs, or not. '

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