After a ten-month hiatus due to the snap ACT lockdown last August, The Street Theatre is looking forward to presenting Twenty Minutes With The Devil by Luis Gómez Romero and Desmond Manderson later this month.

Here’s the story based on an interview with the female lead, Canberra actor Jo Richards, that CW published last August, ahead of the production’s original dates.

Remember when the world was captivated by the dramatic prison break and subsequent arrest of Mexican drug lord, El Chapo?

His bizarre July 2015 prison escape via a mile-long tunnel system complete with rails and a motorcycle, and subsequent roadside arrest in January 2016 evokes the idiom ‘truth is stranger than fiction’.

After being picked up on the side of the road by two unassuming highway patrol officers, El Chapo was escorted to a dingy motel room as the cops awaited reinforcements.

Several years on, a theatre work by head of ANU College of Law, Desmond Matterson, and University of Wollongong senior lecturer in law, Luis Gómez Romero, based on what transpired in that motel room will debut at Canberra’s The Street theatre later this month.

Twenty Minutes With The Devil imagines the conversation that took place as the unlikely trio awaited the arrival of reinforcements.

“Surprising, tense and a little bit funny” is how Canberra actor Jo Richards describes the work.

“The audience is going to feel tense; this is a high stakes situation, so you do need that laughter to give everyone a bit of relief,” she said.

Richards plays Angela, one of the highway cops who captures the drug lord, and stars in the production alongside Raoul Craemer and PJ Williams.

“You’ve got these police there who are the symbols of authority, but ultimately when you think of authority in Latin America you don’t necessarily think of the police, you definitely think of cartels,” she said.

Describing Angela as “morally strict” and “deeply religious”, Richards finds the role to be profoundly engaging.

“For me it’s the complexity of having a character who has attached to something that helps them survive,” she said.

“There are constantly reasons to not have faith: everyone dies, everything’s corrupt … there’s no reckoning with each other’s humanity, everyone’s treated like objects.

“Having faith in all of that is extremely compelling to me.”

‘What does it feel like to in a cage with a lion?’

Being involved in the development process for several years, Richards said she’s been “super fortunate” to have constant access to the work’s creators.

She said working directly alongside Matterson and Gómez Romero has brought “a whole new depth to the work” as it’s allowed her to understand what her lines are speaking to and their importance.

Working in a tight, historically accurate box set that recreates the motel room, a strong fourth wall is created by stylised prison bars at the front of the stage.

“What does it feel like to be in a cage with a lion? because that is essentially what it’s meant to feel like,” Richards said.

“It’s small, and it gets smaller throughout the show,” Richards said. “Not because of anything happening, just the mounting tension.”

A 90-minute production, it depicts what was 20 minutes’ worth of action in real life.

Given that, the pacing, sequencing, and the way tension is built over the course of the performance is of utmost importance.

“The work is very intricate, there’s a lot of business,” Richards said.

“This is a piece of theatre, it’s something you have to be there for … It’s something that really uses theatricality to honour the story.”

Twenty Minutes With The Devil will be performed at The Street Theatre, City West, 18-25 June (preview 17 June); thestreet.org.au

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