George Dillon’s unbroken three-hour performance in Barry Collins’s Judgement as the ‘normal’ cannibal retelling and defending his actions before his audience of judges, received rave reviews and has been hailed by the author as quite unlike any other for its uncompromising intensity.
George Dillon, as Vukhov, gives a virtuoso performance of awesome intensity. His portrayal of the terror, irony, tenderness, and even humour, of Vukhov’s awful history transfixes the audience for nearly three hours. It is a red-raw theatrical experience of rare depth and power.
THE SCOTSMAN
During the Second World War seven soviet officers were imprisoned in the cellar of a hilltop monastery in Poland. Sixty days later only two were rescued. They had survived by killing and eating their comrades. The two crazed men were fed and then shot. But what if one of them had been sane enough to describe and defend his actions…
He looks extraordinary, with cropped hair and sunken eyes, and at moments of passion the veins in his temple stand out as if threatening to burst with the urgency of his need to explain. His voice has a gravelly resonance that ensures the intensity of the writing is well served.
He parades a defiant irony, a pride in his will to survive, a bitter sarcasm as we, his judges, shrink away from the tale he has to tell. He catches himself in despair and forces his way through it. He recalls the love and solidarity of the condemned, and their agony. He even risks a bleak humour.
It is a tour de force.
THE GUARDIAN
George Dillon first performed Judgement for a three week run in an upstairs room of The Volunteer pub in Brighton in May 1990. In 1991 he took the production to the Edinburgh Fringe, and then toured it in the UK in the Spring of 1992.
In a performance of rare concentration George Dillon shows us how savagery and tenderness can exist simultaneously, and invites us to join the intimacy of his fleshy feast.. Not for the squeamish then – this is theatre red in tooth and claw, but an unforgettable play presented by a player approaching the peak of his power.
THE INDEPENDENT
If you want to enjoy some unforgettable and brilliant acting, go and see Judgement… Dillon is undoubtedly one of the best actors I’ve ever seen perform on the Fringe.
EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS