Its a conventional play with a difference acted out on stage, with an audience seated front-on in the dark. Its an experience.The writing, by Ben Schiffer of E4s Skins is tight and cinematic. Scenes shift seamlessly from one to the other, with the flight paths of thought routes being navigated along so clearly, there is no concept of not being on autopilot. Theres no feeling of ever being lost in the dark. We always know the system is working. Cinematic references abound mainly in terms of structure but also in content, providing a strange subliminal foil of a light-dependent medium which is in contrast with and ultimately weakens the effect of the physical ambience. For the actors, the dark becomes a place to hide, to explore, to talk, a place to heal, a place to be comforted, a place to be cleansed. Its safe enough for the audience a captive group of voyeurs, spying on the unfolding dialogue of a complex relationship, which takes place in the bedroom but spins in and out of different timeframes and different life stages in the lives of two characters Tom, played convincingly by James Rose and Daisy, played rather reticently by Marina Niel.The characters are complex and well-defined in terms of writing. She is portrayed as an intelligent, but manipulative bitch. He as a happy-go-lucky maverick until the literary camera angle changes, the author zooms in on a different aspect and allows the audience to see things in a different aspect of darkness. In a passage in which Daisy reveals she has embraced Jesus Christ, Tom distractedly toys with his mobile phone, the screen shining in the dark seeing the light yeah, yeah.It rather destroys the impact of the line, you always have to turn the light on again eventually, which is exactly what happens predictably, at the end.Is this best experienced as theatre or radio play? While the actors movements could be seen, given the lighting state, the voice was the primary conveyor of text, action and emotion, and both actors failed to deliver as fully as they could have both in terms of vocal variety and projection. Its a bit confusing, and its meant to be but the audience isnt left in the dark for too long. You always have to turn the light on again eventually. The playwright applies the line to his own writing, eventually revealing all, tying up loose cables, connecting loose ends to join a full circuit. By the end of the play, Schiffer thankfully avoids the obvious and comes to define dark differently in an intriguing and original twist on the theme.Perhaps this would be better experienced blindfolded, in a different staging configuration. Without involving the audience fully in the experience, without depriving them fully of the sense of sight, the answer to the question which Schiffer raises in his play, Where are we most who we really are? unfortunately remains in the dark for the duration.
