This show has a strong concept from the outset, but the performance lets this concept down by rendering it uninteresting. In a post 9/11 world – eleven years on, in fact – a play about ‘the new prophecy’ (garbled Book of Revelation-sounding messages; audio files that suggest a working knowledge of the lives of the workers at a USA home security office) should do very well. On the surface then, this would seem like a very marketable production. However, the performance I attended was far from full; this resulted from the fact that the concept was not used to its maximum potential. There was some sort of vague attempt at involving the audience by making them the voices that the psychic (played with little charisma or conviction) was hearing. Sadly, this did not work at all. There was also an awkward moment when I realised that the whole play could have come to a premature close if the characters had merely shut their computers.
Overall, the acting was passable. There was, however, nothing standout about any of the performances; lines were recited competently, but the actors themselves had no true belief in them. The audience therefore developed no emotional connection with the characters. Similarly, the staging was instantly forgettable.
The show was not necessarily bad per se - indeed, the acting was often fairly competent. It was just executed in an uninspired manner. The writer clearly aimed for a late-night unsettling piece of horror-theatre; the fact that the script’s idea was not utilised creatively and with greater finesse meant that the performance never succeeded in creating an eerie and unsettling atmosphere.
The end saw me groaning in desperation when – unashamedly and completely inexplicably – the show transformed into Shaun of the Dead.
