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The Zero Yard. The Scotsman. 8.15.2000. Joyce McMillan	The Zero Yard and Amazonia are both plays set behind the wire. One comes from New York, the other from Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka, the distant peninsula of Russia that almost touches Japan; yet both are about imprisonment, and the roles people play in groups that have nowhere to turn but inwards. The Zero Yard is the latest show from 1999 Fringe First winners the Riot Group.	The scene is a United States penitentiary, and the five characters are trapped in a world of high-pitched, nonstop brutality, sexual violence and verbal obscenity that can make the show difficult to watch. But beneath the hard, blaring surface of this piece, there are also some unexpected subtleties. The different characters of the four prisoners emerge with surprising clarity; there's an odd recurring motif in which the prisoners repeat, as if rehearsing a play, some lines from an old movie about slavery or chain-gangs; there's a dense, rippling quality to the script that is sometimes drowned out by the sheer vehemence of the acting.	It's perhaps slightly disappointing to see such a gifted young company adopting a hyper-violent, shout-first-think-later performance style that's become something of a Fringe clichŽ in recent years. But even if the style of the performance is debatable, there's no doubting its high energy slickness and precision. The Riot Group remain a formidable, driven company, impossible to ignore. > return to top
The Zero Yard. The List. 8.10.2004. Olly Lassman.	It's always possible that the Riot Group are apocalyptic poet-prophets: ingenious, but cerebrally-bruising, Kafkaesque crusaders of the soul.	Likewise, The Zero Yard might actually be a debilitating critique of psychological neo-fascism; a linguistically non-conformist portrayal of a world of ethical subversion and depravity, coupled with an uncompromising proto-feminist chainsaw dissection of physiological and ideological violation.	Either that, or just a bunch of screaming skinheads showing their arses a lot and talking about 'motherfuckers'. You decide. Alternately, spare yourself what is probably one of the most pretentious, tedious and repulsive theatrical experiences on offer this Fringe, and go see something good. > return to top
The Zero Yard. The Glasgow Herald. 8.2000. Stephanie Noblett.	The Garage theatre's largest space is claustrophobia-inducing, which is what makes it perfect for the Riot Group's new creation. The bricks glisten with black paint as the audience enters deafened by grunge music, wondering if The Zero Yard can possibly surpass last year's show, Wreck the Airline Barrier. Set in a high-security prison, The Zero Yards' scenario is woven around three highly-dangerous prisoners - Preacher, Sigourney, and the evil celebrity inmate, Plug - under surveillance from a no-less-dangerous guard called Leon. Their unpleasant but stable equilibrium explodes on the arrival of Trout. Tougher than she seems, Trout eventually turns the tables on them in a horrific way.	From unsettling start to Tarantino-esque finish, The Zero Yard is a catalogue of beatings and rapes in every possible gender combination. The performances are mostly strong, in particular Stephanie Viola as Trout, and Adriano Shaplin's script has that pleasingly surreal stream-of-consciousness quality.	Ultimately, though, The Zero Yard relies on violence to do what Wreck the Airline Barrier did with words and performance, and the company should be careful of falling into the trap of being shocking for the sake of it. As a piece of angry young theatre, The Zero Yard is worth seeing, just don't take any elderly relatives unless you're looking to collect an inheritance early. > return to top
The Zero Yard. Three Weeks. 8.2000. Staff Review.	This show hits you like a physical assault. Like a brutal, meaningless, brainless act of violence. Blindingly back-lit, the glaring white lights expose the audience, leaving the performers in shadow.	Pounding music fills the black claustrophobic space, while the white-clad inmates of The Zero Yard play out their power games under the invisible surveillance of the screw. Any sign of weakness is exploited. All actions have to be accounted for.	The show makes enormous demands on its young cast, who perform with admirable conviction and commitment, maintaining a pitch of screaming intensity throughout. But the production's stark abstraction is its failing. Nothing is ever this black and white - there are always shades of grey. > return to top
The Zero Yard. Culture Wars. 8.2000. Ravi Bali.	Two men, Plug and Preacher, and a woman, Sig, have shared a cell for some time, and are presented with a new cellmate. The new woman, who is referred to simply as 'fresh fish,' quickly becomes a source of tension when the dominant Plug claims he wants her for himself despite Sig already being his 'bitch'. They all turn on the new arrival and the play develops its bleak vision of the inhuman levels of cruelty that these life-term convicted killers will inflict upon one another.	There is little respite from intense suspicion, fear and hate. There are moments of black humour, but even these do not provide much relief from the oppressive mood of darkness that dominates the performance. The play is utterly gripping, engaging our sympathies for the newly arrived woman. With each newly threatened act of violence, we pray that she will not be brutalized further. The intermittent background music has a heavy clanging beat, with a drone that brilliantly enhances the atmosphere of menace. The dialogue is great, and in the tradition of Robert De Niro's narration in Taxi Driver, has a lyrical quality. The contrast between the brutality of the story and the poetic, image-laden, speech, makes it a strange work. A peculiar combination of beauty and ugliness that allows the audience to enjoy the play while at the same time being repulsed by it. This is one you should definitely see - an intense experience.	Shaplin's vision for Wreck the Airline Barrier represents something Burlington doesn't see much of: true raw experimental theater. When first performed at Sarah Lawrence College, the play caused threats of expulsion to be cast on the actors. It's no wonder sensitive folks jumped to conclusions (the play contains a segment where all three actors jump to their feet and vehemently Sieg Heil), but Wreck the Airline Barrier is hardly a piece of inflammatory shock theater. Shaplin and his cast have sculpted a sophisticated study of the roots of racism, sexism, capitalism, and social injustice, revealing the hypocrisy between what people think and what they say. The Riot Group is the most promising experimental troupe the Queen City has witnessed in years, even though they all deserve a good spanking. Salvon. > return to top
The Zero Yard. Financial Times. 8.2000. Ian Shuttleworth.	Words can change their meanings radically depending upon context. During the rest of the year, for instance, "intense" is usually a term of approbation for a theatre piece; in Edinburgh, it signifies a purgatorial endurance test. Last year, young American company The Riot Group scored an enormous hit with their Wreck the Airline Barrier; it was bizarre, hilarious and kept full houses enraptured in the most airless Edinburgh venue I have ever experienced. This year's offering The Zero Yard, is... well, extremely intense.	To put it bluntly, the company has gone all earnest. Four inmates in a prison camp are harangued by a tyrannical guard, and wage campaigns of war and status amongst themselves. Sex becomes a commodity (two of the four are women), to be traded or simply seized. The action is deliberately harshly backlit, so for an hour and a quarter the audience is dazzled by scarlet spots as well as being assaulted by bellowed hostilities.	Yes, this is a work of great concentration and commitment. What it also is, however, is grinding in the extreme, loud and tedious, the theatrical equivalent of a Glenn Branca symphony for massed overdriven electric guitars. > return to top