Riveting and beautifully staged analysis of totalitarianism: Arcola’s #WeAreArrested reviewed

When the RSC does modern drama it usually lays on an ultra-worthy yarn with a huge cast, dozens of fancy costumes and a three-hour running time. Miraculously, its new co-production with the Arcola avoids these faults and delivers a terse, gripping 75-minute documentary drama based on the prison diary of Turkish journalist, Can Dundar. In 2015 Dundar received proof that his country’s intelligence service was attempting to supply arms to Syrian rebels. He knew that if he released the material he might face jail but he published it anyway and was threatened with life imprisonment. Peter Hamilton Dyer, well known for impersonating journalists, plays Dundar as a loveably cerebral type determined to stick to his principles.

The spare and ingenious set, by Charlie Cridlan, consists of three white oblong tables that can be aligned to imitate any location the story requires: a cell, a bed, an editor’s office, a dinner table, an exercise  yard or an interrogation suite.