Review: MURDER IN THE DARK (Original Theatre Online)

 


Tickets: Gifted

Rating: 4 Stars

What do you want from a play? Something new? Something interesting? Something that gets your mind nicely working and the cogs whirring around? If that’s the case, you’re in luck; these are the things that Torben Betts’ Murder in the Dark gives you in a neatly wrapped-up package full of scares and twists. Just when you think you’ve definitely worked out exactly what’s going on, the rug (or in this case, perhaps sofa or maybe dining table) is very firmly yanked out from under you, and you have to start all over again, with just the merest scraps of clues to help you. 

Here's a hint: those clues won’t help. By the time you get to the end of this masterclass in psychological horror, you’ll barely know what’s up and what’s down, let alone what’s real – and what’s just a shadow. 


Photo credit: Pamela Raith

Murder in the Dark is the story of Danny Sierra, a has-been pop idol who, along with his brother, William, ex-wife, Rebecca, son, Jake, and girlfriend, Sarah, end up stuck in a ramshackle old cottage in the middle of nowhere after a car accident on a snowy road. It’s new year’s eve and they’ve got nowhere to go, meaning they’re stuck with one another until morning. That’s not something any of them are particularly happy about. Well, apart from the cottage’s owner, Mrs Bateman, a seemingly kindly but confused old woman who lives at the farm next door. She likes having the company. 

And so the scene is set for a night of horrors that not one of the family, especially Danny himself, could ever have imagined. 

Philip Franks’ direction is pacey, barely giving the audience a chance to breathe before the next creepy moment, the next loud noise, the next argument caused by resentment that’s been pent up for far too long. Even though there’s a decent amount of exposition in the script (it’s needed if you want to understand the ending), it never feels too much like telling – there’s a lot of showing going on. 

Tom Chambers plays Danny. He’s on edge the whole time and becomes increasingly overwrought as the night goes on. The audience is right there with him, not sure quite who to trust or what to believe, and wondering – often out loud – what this or that noise was. His brother, William, played by Owen Oakeshott, is much more laid back, and it’s his calming influence that probably stops Danny from rushing out into the snow and facing certain death due to hyperthermia. Well, him and the massive dog that’s standing guard, of course. 

Son Jake is played by Jonny Green who portrays the moody older teen with just enough hurt in his eyes to make the audience feel for him rather than write him off as a hormonal young man who has an axe to grind about his father’s lack of effort as he was growing up. By the time he really lets loose and tells Danny what he thinks of him, we get it – we’d probably do the same, or at least want to. 

However, above all, it’s Susie Blake as Mrs Bateman who steals each scene. It’s hard to know what to make of the character, and that’s intentional. Good or bad? Silly or satanic? Ignorant or knowing? It could be either, both, none of the above, and that’s intriguing – the guessing is all part of the fun. 


Photo credit: Pamela Raith


Since this is a horror, the lighting and sound do a lot of heavy lifting. Paul Pyant’s lighting is moody and menacing, cleverly setting the scene of a country cottage that’s seen better days and where the power keeps going out. The flickering TV set as Danny and Mrs Bateman first walk inside, the barely-there Christmas tree lights, the torches pointing through the windows… it’s all set up in a deliciously spine-tingling way. The music and sound is by Max Pappenheim, and this is very nicely done, luring the audience into a feeling that we’ve been here before, we’ve heard this before, before shocking us out of our horror-comfort zones into something else entirely. 

As for the ending, I won’t spoil it here, but I didn’t see it coming, which is always a treat, and the way that everything goes from chaotic confusion into something much, much darker – and nastier – is quick and shocking. The last scene might be familiar, but there’s an added element that makes it stand out as an iconic piece of horror theatre, and once you see it, you’re not going to forget it. 

Murder in the Dark can be watched online with an Original Theatre subscription at https://originaltheatre.com/productions/murder-in-the-dark


Photo credit: Pamela Raith




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