Steal does not waste time transforming an ordinary workplace into something incredibly disturbing!
A normal working day, mutual acquaintances, and silent desks turn out to be the setting of a crime that occurs in real time and puts its heroes in a situation where they have to remain inside it, and none of them expected such a circumstance.
It takes only a few initial scenes to make it clear that this is not a spectacle-based heist thriller, but rather a tightly run narrative that examines how humans respond when faced with extreme pressure.
Steal does not tell everything initially, but lets its characters decide on what to tell. Naturally, fear, hesitation, compliance, and resistance are the results of the escalation of the office takeover. The confinement and the uncertainty create tension in the series; the focus on both those who are trapped in the building and those who are attempting to comprehend the crime externally is given equal weight.
Here's who brought the crime thriller Steal to life
Sophie Turner plays Zara Dunne
Sophie Turner plays the role of Zara Dunne, who works at the Lochmill Capital pension fund company based in London. Zara is presented as an ordinary office employee who has no power or control in any other area other than in the office. This is suddenly altered when armed invaders take over the office, and she is in a situation where she is not in control.
In Steal, Zara plays the centre not due to ambition or intention, but because of the closeness. The fact that she has access to internal systems and that she is forced to cooperate has put her at the center of the heist. The series depicts Zara as a character who has to maneuver in fear and coercion, which is one of the defining motifs of Steal, the depiction of how regular people are forced to make an impossible decision when depowered.
Archie Madekwe in the role of Luke
Archie Madekwe stars as one of Zara's colleagues, Luke, who happens to be in the office when it is taken over. The character of Luke in Steal provides a more realistic look at the crisis, and is the personification of most of the employees who are caught in the crisis but have little control over anything.
Luke does not stand out as a decision-maker and strategist. Rather, his responses reveal perplexity, terror, and doubtfulness - feelings many people within the building feel.
Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as DCI Rhys Covac
Jacob Fortune-Lloyd stars as the senior officer of the case, Detective Chief Inspector Rhys Covac, who will be investigating the crime after it gets out of the office. His plotline runs parallel to the hostage situation, expanding the range of Steal beyond the limited interior space.
DCI Rhys Covac is depicted to manoeuvre through piecemeal information, institutional stress, and the innate complexity of comprehending a crime that seeks to be in the shadows. Steal does not make the police appear to be instantly efficient and omniscient.
Rather, the investigation of Rhys highlights the fact that sophisticated financial offenses cannot be solved easily, even when huge amounts of money are at stake.
Andrew Howard is Sniper
Andrew Howard plays the role of Sniper, who is among the armed attackers of the takeover. Presence and action define Sniper in Steal instead of his backstory.
His personality supports the inequality of power between the intruders and the office workers. The unpredictability of Sniper keeps the tension in the series, as it is an opportunity to remember that violence can occur all the time. Steal makes no effort to give reasons behind his actions, maintaining the emphasis on effect as opposed to explanation.
Supporting cast of Steal
In addition to the main protagonists, Steal has a large supporting cast that also contributes to creating the effect of realism and size. These are various levels of corporate, criminal, and institutional engagement.
Jonathan Slinger as London
The character of Jonathan Slinger also adds to the overall corporate setting in which Lochmill Capital exists and strengthens the institutional setting of the series.
Myrtle Clarke is portrayed by Eloise Thomas
Another civilian introduction to the story by Myrtle Clarke is the way that disruption influences different people based on their roles and positions.
Yusra Warsama as Glasses
Being a part of the criminal group, Glasses is given minimal exposition, which is expected of Steele and his approach to the antagonists.
Diana Bermudez, Dominic Mafham, Tara Summers, Harry Michell, Thomas Larkin, Sarah Belcher, Tomisin Ajani, Kadiesha Belgrave, Spike Leighton, Julianna Kurokawa, and Shaun Mason.
These supporting roles fill the Steal world with office workers, policemen, and people involved in the investigation underway. Their appearance strengthens the feeling that the crime is affecting many other people, rather than the ones directly involved.
Steal criminal group dynamics
The gangsters in Steal are brought out as organized and well thought out, yet deliberately vague. The series does not provide much personal motivation, but rather shows how their acts upset systems in place.
This is a narrative decision that does not allow classification of morality. Through the exposition, which is not that much, Steal puts the viewers in the same position as its characters do; they know that something is going on, but they do not know entirely who is controlling.
Creative team behind Steal
Steal is based on the script by S.A. Nikias (also known as Sotiris Nikias) and directed by Sam Miller and Hettie MacDonald. Drama Republic produces the series together with Amazon MGM Studios.
The creative direction is more inclined towards the tension created by the pacing as opposed to spectacle. Limited space, subdued conversation, and extended waiting time enable the acting of the cast to progress the storytelling.
Themes as revealed by the cast
Steal as a cast jointly espouses the thematic consideration found in the show of moral ambiguity, vulnerability, and systemic failure. None of the characters is placed as such, good or bad.
Rather, Steal looks at the reaction to the sudden and decisive alteration of control. The ensemble structure also provides that there are multiple perspectives in effect because the same event will be seen very differently, given the circumstances and power.
The characters and the cast of Steal are the basis of the dense narration of the story. Opting to engage unwillingly in Zara Dunne and systematizing the investigation in DCI Rhys Covac, all parts of the narrative are focused on the reaction rather than the solution.
In basing itself on human reaction instead of spectacle, Steal maintains a believable depiction of crisis and consequence. It is on the ensemble cast that Steal builds to examine the ways through which regular structures, offices, organizations, and habits fail under the weight of such circumstances.
A corresponding breakdown of the cast thus forms an integral part of comprehending what Steal offers.
Also read: Steal ending explained: Zara’s suspect position and the insider question at the heart of the heist