Visible Fictions, on tour October 2004

Into the Dark

IT USED to be as a teenager that you could never find books that were aimed at you. Too old for baby books, not ready for adult literature, those in their teens were neglected. That’s all changed now, with a whole genre of teenage fiction, but things haven’t moved so fast in the theatre.

There are plenty of companies catering to the under-10s, but teenagers are unlikely to see anything unless it comes with a teachers pack, a post-show discussion and a clear educational message.

That’s one of the two reasons Into the Dark seems so special. Touring the larger theatres in Scotland, it’s a show that pitches itself perfectly at the mid-teen market, bad language, sexual fumbling, violent horseplay, clubby music and all. It’s aim is to entertain, not teach, and it does so with real assurance.

The second reason Donald Mcleary’s play stands out is to do with genre. Telling the story of four boys and a girl who venture into the woods in search of a house occupied by the witch-like Mrs Liddle, Into the Dark is that rare thing in the theatre, a horror play. In the cinema it’s common to scare the audience, but only a handful of plays attempt the same thing.

This is one of them and in Douglas Irvine’s production, boldly lit by Kai Fischer on a simple but clever set of planks by Evelyn Barbour, it succeeds all too well. I won’t pretend to have been one of the teenagers in the audience shrieking in terror every time Vari Sylvester’s Mrs Liddle loomed eccentrically at the back of the stage, but shriek they did and it is, indeed, very spookily done.

The production has something of the atmosphere of The Blair Witch Project – quite an accomplishment when all they’ve got to play with are lights, music and the planks of wood which double as trees and corridors. It differs from that film, however, in that it is also very funny. McLeary deftly changes the mood from horror to hilarity by the line in a witty script that captures well the squabbles, competitiveness, aggression and camaraderie of a teenage gang.

Although it meanders a little, the actors do a fine job of keeping the tension up, helping to keep a large teenage audience enraptured.

Into the Dark plays at Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, on Tuesday 5 and Wednesday 6 October.

© Mark Fisher, 2004

Related Links:

Visible Fictions website