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These interrogations are then intercut with monologues from the parents involved including Robert's mother and father, Jon's mother and James' mother.
The cast also address the audience, questioning why we have come to a performance about "two children who killed a third" and whether or not our inaction is the reason why such brutal crimes have occurred and will continue to happen.
Radstrom clearly wished to make his audience think and the script is successful in raising questions of responsibility and of what constitutes evil. During the opening scene the actors ask the audience if we would be willing to get involved in the performance we are about to see, it asks what actions we would take to stop what is about to happen. Further to this at the end of the production the point that, as we have failed to intervene in the reconstructions we thus share in some common responsibility, is reiterated.
While I doubt the cast were actually expecting a member of the audience to make their way on stage, this exercise is effective in making you think about your own involvement in events you may have seen while going about your life. The production makes the point of stressing that 38 different witnesses, at various points, saw Jon and Robert take James on the two and a half mile walk that ended by the railway tracks and none of them did anything significant to help the toddler. You can't help wonder 'What would I have done?'
Director Christopher Haydon has handled the subject matter with the respect and reverence it deserves and at no time does the production feel sensationalised or intentionally offensive. That said it can make for difficult and uncomfortable viewing, in particular the re-telling of previous violent crimes that have included children. For example the murder of five-year-old girl by a ten-year-old boy which included a knife and butchers hook in 1748.
Monsters is an excellent production that aims to use theatre to question society and its failings, and judging by the animated hour-long conversation I had in the bar afterwards about the issues raised, it has certainly done its job in this respect.
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