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Terror 2010: Death and Resurrection

Southwark Playhouse, London, 12-31 October 2010

Photo: Gaby Motola.

cast list
Sam Swan, Kieran Knowles, Olivia Brown, Scot Christie, Trudi Jackson, Caroline Langrishe, Joseph Chance, Alex Bartram, Cornelius Booth, William Ewart, Tom McGairl, Sarah-Louise Young

The bare brick railway tunnels of the Southwark Theatre prove a suitably creepy setting for Terror 2010: Death and Resurrection.

The evening starts well with a Sweeney Todd-esque song from nurse Sarah-Louise Young - a demonic ‘Florence Nightingale’ playing the role of emcee - opening with the possibly most entertaining request to switch off your mobile phone ever and setting an appropriately dark tone for the action to follow.

First up is Mark Ravenhill's The Exclusion Zone, a blind date that descends into horror (and hilarity), showcasing both Ravenhill’s smart ear for dialogue and his propensity to go over the top.

Directing as well as writing, he makes great use of the space, much of the play just two men and a torch, using the darkness and the shuddering noise of passing London Bridge trains to sinister effect. Kieran Knowles is amusing as the city boy out of his depth in the countryside while Sam Swan is a convincing mix of menace and charm. There are some truly spooky moments and some laugh out loud lines before the story descends into... well, that would be spoiling it, but safe to say you won't be expecting it.

There's a brief interval of impressive zombie fusion belly dancing by Llio Millward (no, I'm not making that up) followed by Neil LaBute's The Unimaginable (directed by Jason Lawson). This starts exceptionally well, with Scott Christie a lone figure in the darkness accessorised only by a bare stage and a suitcase full of broken dolls. With LaBute's unerring ability to hone in on all that is bleak in humanity, the monologue does a good job of playing on everyday fears but outstays its welcome - it would have been far more effective had it been shorter: as it is, repetition dilutes rather than reinforces the message.

The third play, Country by April de Angelis, (directed by Hannah Eidinow) is a slight story but has a pleasingly retro Tales of the Unexpected vibe. Trudi Jackson is a country wife haunted by her overbearing ex and Caroline Langrishe is the friend come to comfort her, in a shocker that proves that even a dead Tory can do serious damage.

Unfortunately, everything falls apart in the final quarter. A flabby and unfocused tale of early 20th century resurrectionists, William Ewart's Reanimator begins promisingly but soon descends into both tedium and farce, and feels longer than the rest of the show put together - director Adam Meggido failing to pull the strands into a cohesive whole. Based on short stories by HP Lovecraft, it's not without some good moments - a spate of undead chaos is well done – and the cast (including Joseph Chance, Alex Bartram and Cornelius Booth, as well as Ewart himself) are fine, but by the time it reaches the First World War trenches it's run out of steam, and has undone much of the good work that's gone before.

This is a shame because there are some really nice touches. Sparse staging and minimal lighting plays the creepiness to the max (designer Kelly Jago does a nice job). The mix of humour and horror works, for the most part, well, and overall makes for an original night out in the run up to Halloween - but changing the running order and applying some judicious trimming would have made for a far more memorable evening.

- Tracey Sinclair