DARK FANGTASY IN A SCAFFOLDING CITY
For this compact and creepy little atmospheric deal with, John Donnelly turns to vampires. That’s not a spoiler: the programme is filled with realized stuff concerning the cultural historical past of bloodsucking immortals, and the soundscape alone ought to alert even the dullest to the upcoming supernatural shenanigans. Anyway, its 100-minute span (that features interval, it’s fairly bijou) has loads of good shocks alongside the way in which. Even when you’ve labored out that there’s one thing fishy about Laura Whitmore’s smiling, chilly however ever-helpful Ana, the first college instructor who’s so dedicated to Mia’s son Alfie and his reward for drawing characters with knives for enamel. Frankly, even Ana’s purple lipstick provides you pause.
Not least becaue Mia herself (Sophie Melville) is unmade-up, tousled, sleepily exhausted with a new child and a pleasant normie husband (Bryan Dick) who retains lengthy hours in some form of IT surveillance decrypting psychopathic gamer chatrooms with – guess! – vampiric fantasies, after some headless our bodies turned up within the Thames. Mia is nervy, ceaselessly jiggling her crying bundle, and unnerved by Alfie, who saunters out and in in a horror masks that “Miss” made him. And factors so much. We’ve all identified children like that.
The play’s power lies in its masterly creation of a selected city neurosis, acquainted to many: a sleepless weak city mom is on a floating stage swathed in scaffolding: nothing restful on this onerous metropolis world . Donnelly captures not solely that early-motherhood craziness inside the restive city racket, but in addition the sheer bloody boring persecution of being a younger blonde girl in an age with out manners. The aggressive prepare passenger swearing at her contemptously “just because you’re holding a baby” , the pleasant chap within the park asking the time and continuing to wank at her, the noisy neighbour who doesn’t give a rattling, even the physician she despairingly consults about her scraping nervousness who boredly suggests “breathing techniques, white noise, history podcasts” (good snicker there. There are many, actually).
Leander Deeny performs all the boys, probably the most magnificent being a rich coked-up pickup who takes Mia and Ana to his penthouse for anoother drink: very humorous. Ana, by this time Mia’s sweetly supportive good friend, sees to him. Oh sure. You’ll love the balcony bit. Also love younger Alfie (Callum Knowelden on press night time) doing his college presentation, which is in fact very eco-gloom up to date, being all about how people are ruining the planet and it will do higher with out them.
There is by this time plenty of blood on the stage, and Donnelly threatens us with a genuinely horrifying finish, earlier than twisting it again to – nicely, you resolve. But it’s maybe comforting to know that even when the planet doesn’t want us people, vampires actually do. For meals. How else can they reside 600 years and keep in mind the Fire of London?
Director Blance McIntyre retains all of it transferring, and provides us the interval to muse on whether or not Mia goes to take pleasure in her – er – new standing. It doesn’t try any deep truths, however gives a very good, transient, darkish thrill (excess of the boring Let the Right One In) and – I believe – most significantly an actual questioning kick on the sheer bloody stress of managing a brand new child with out a lot help in a pressured, noisy, aggressive metropolis. Feminism noir.
hampsteadtheatre.com to 26 April
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