The acclaimed trio, Tim Watts, Arielle Gray and Chris Isaac are back in Edinburgh with their latest collaborative project. It’s Dark Outside is a surrealist production, following the midnight adventures of an old man who wanders out into the wild. We watch as he journeys through time and space, sleeping in tents and playing with clouds. However, the old man is not an old man at all but Gray wearing a mask of a sad wizen face. If all that isn’t quirky enough, there is a miniature puppet replica of Gray’s guise that somehow manages to steal the spotlight.
In this production gesticulation really is everything since there is no dialogue but the trio do more than just get it right. Choreographed to perfection, the team clusters round the small puppet, manoeuvring it with a blend of precision and humour which punctuates their seamless dexterity. The team’s ability to convey dementia and a sense of confusion so accurately through a puppet and a mask is really a wonder.
It’s Dark Outside is aptly named, alluding to the dreamlike quality enhanced in the show. Its use of dimmed lighting, flashlights, studded sky screen projections, lulling music and spaciousness gives it that feeling of freedom and possibility, allowing us to attribute our own meaning to what unfolds on stage.
It’s Dark Outside is surprisingly beautiful given its simplicity and unmistakably modern feel. Fusing puppetry, physical theatre and digital animation it is a hybrid performance. The silhouetted projection of the Wild West is rather captivating despite its artificiality. The musical score composed by Rachael Dease is equally modern. It is mesmerizingly haunting and could be best described as a poignant melancholic lullaby. It complements the bittersweet feel of the performance, working perfectly in union with the movements of the agile puppeteers. Dease’s composition is so striking that there is even an option to buy the soundtrack after the show.
Arguably there is no concrete and driven plot. Rather it is a piece of expressive theatre that explores the nuances of growing old and therefore you must to attribute your own interpretation. The success of this play all depends on whether you like puppets and outlandish fantasy. If you are sitting on the fence I would suggest putting any prejudices aside and witness the mastery of the puppet and the delicacy of the team to make something so beautiful out of an issue so tragic.
