New World, new order

Faeces-filled burgers and the fraudulent world of natural flavourings were just a couple of the topics in Eric Schlosser's furiously challenging book Fast Food Nation.

There the American fast-food empire famously came under fire, and now - in a play that he wrote almost 20 years ago - empire itself raises several questions, as he takes audience members back to 1901, and the assassination of President William McKinley.

Was the day that the Pole Leon Czolgosz shot McKinley as significant as 11 September 2001? Director Dominic Dromgoole certainly feels that Schlosser has depicted a crucial moment for a US bracing itself to take on the mantle of imperialism from Britain, in an ambitious drama making it highly debatable whether Czolgosz was a deluded anarchist or a utopian visionary.

The Oxford Stage Company's deft production uses the Arcola like a threedimensional black canvas, conjuring up scenes from the turn of the 20th century by shining spotlights into different areas of the former warehouse.

With filmic speed, the audience can go from McKinley's death bed to his funeral, or from an audience with the president's wife to the electric chair - and Paul Anderson's lighting design amplifies the power of each vital encounter.

Americans can occasionally feel slight, despite its epic concerns, and just a little more political detail would give it the ballast it needs. Even so, Bo Poraj as Czolgosz and Paul Rider as Teddy Roosevelt, the imperialist he ironically thrusts into power, head a versatile cast for a historically compelling evening.

Americans