MURDER IN THE DARK
Horror is a much loved genre. From Frankenstein to Dracula theate is full of it. Murder in the Dark hides its darkness until the very end of the play. But once revealed a haunting horror emerges, a story more akin to the Fates of cursed ancient Greek unfortunates who have fallen foul of the gods, than the high camp of nineteenth century blood and gore.
On the surface, this is a sharply observed social commentary. Danny, played with mesmerizing compulsion by Tom Chambers is a troubled man. Restless, impatient, touchy, he is a cat on the hot tin roof of his life, a character with a tortured past; he wallows in a sea of regret. Tom Chambers’ portrait of a depressed, desolate soul is the central fascination of the drama. He has superb stage presence. Danny has endured a miserable childhood “I hated my mother and she hated me”, he claims he was , almost unbelievably bereft of affection and plagued by a strange nanny ( or was she another version of his mother) who played cruel tricks on Danny and his brother William. Owen Oakshott is superb as the crushed teacher and elder brother – yet he unlike Danny - has forgiveness in his soul. Danny not. He is struck by sudden fame and for a brief time wowed the pop scene with his singing group. When he discovers his dull brother and his ex-wife are now lovers, the atmosphere sours further.
But William is also a musician - in fact the one bright light of the drama was the song he performs on guitar with his now jealous younger brother. They both have wonderful voices. Danny, real name Nigel, is consistently lovable. He is just the sort of handsome boyish, disastrous character women fall for. Rebecca Charles plays the long suffered ex-wife with tenderness but even as Danny’s foibles and failures show through, and the boy/man does feel them himself, she still loves him . And he her.
Danny’s erratic driving (he had a bottle of brandy the night before,) crashes the car and (apparently) strands the tense and tortured group in a weird farmhouse with an even stranger chatelaine played with amusing quirkiness by a superb Susie Blake. Sarah, a great role from Laura White, is Danny’ s 22 year old girlfriend. Laura is brilliant in this role, truculent, loving, sensible ,short tempered and exasperated. But she is not what she seems at all. Another thread in the disastrous history of Danny/Nigel is his son Jake. Jonny Green is a superb as this wannabe rock musician ‘ Jake yearns for this own gig and his father’s approval.
Torben Betts, like Rishi Sunak, wrote this play for a bet, Horror is not his genre, he confesses. And worse he claims to have no belief in the paranormal ,so much so that “I make Richard Dawkins look like a believer in ghosts.” His creed is in the “magic of reality . and science. That said. It’s still fun to write this kind of thing!”
It may be. He wrote the play over a weekend. As one member of the audience remarked, “He might have been better to go back and have another go at it.“ Despite the brilliant roles the actors take and the authentic despair the hero of the play , it is hard to follow the confused tropes within. The humour is good, the jokes are witty, the laughs are there. But none of it helps us suspend our disbelief -
Until the end. For there is a terrifying depth to this play. The truth is a slow burn as the audience slowly discovers the true horror at its core. It connects the play with an entire genre of existential drama from Jean Paul Sartre’ Huit Clos to Christopher Marlowe’s Faust to Euripides Bacchae and the Greek Furies - all immensely more terrifying than the costumed capers of later horror tales, as they leave Man to face his own fate alone.
Murder in the Dark_Pamela Raith Photography.
Murder in the Dark_Pamela Raith Photography.
Murder in the Dark_Pamela Raith Photography.
