This long two-hander explores the final days of General Noriega, the former President of Panama. Focus is sharpened by placing him in close confinement with a priest who might have come straight out of Graham Greene.
By the time that Ignatius Anthony's Noriega reaches the sanctuary offered by Archbishop Laboa, he has become a maddened bull of a man and spends the play's 90 minutes ranting, generally at top volume, only drowned out by the music played by his American invaders in an attempt to drive him mad. It certainly had that affect on some audience members who are not used to hearing Jimi Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner at concert pitch.
In front of crucifixion imagery, Noriega raves inconsolably, invoking past demons such as Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, as he awaits arrest from the forces invading his country in old George Bush's Operation Just Cause.
The priest, played by Peter Dineen, is dying and has a history as the Devil's Advocate, a cross between The Grand Inquisitor and the chair of the committee that elevates saints.
This unlikely pair build a kind of mutual respect but very little understanding emerges from the repetitious ramblings of the former leader who knows that he will be a dead man sooner than his terminally ill bedfellow.
Somehow, despite the efforts of all concerned, no true picture of either man or their countries emerges, thus negating the presumed purpose of the play.