Darkling
Titas Halder
Directed by Matthew Xia
Bush Theatre
Star rating: 3.5
Photo credit: Alex Brenner
Titas Halder’s viscerally written new play takes us to Bhopal, India and the life of a slum child whose life is choked with relentless tragedy from the early loss of her mother to the outcome of a devastating industrial disaster. It’s searingly gruelling stuff although its unbroken 90 minute length passes quite quickly.
It’s a one-woman performance with Linnea Berthelsen as the central character who is never named. Berthelsen is a remarkable actor with a wide range who comfortably depicts every character she presents and who uses the Bush’s quite large playing area with lithe fluidity. As a child “I am seven” she’s lively and charming. As bereft adult who has lost everything (a relative term) she is weighty, moving and looks twenty years older although she never leaves the stage. This play must be a challenging feat of stamina and the final ten minutes is a tour de force. On the other hand she and her director, Matthew Xia have not quite mastered the Bush’s acoustic and Berthelsen’s words are often lost particularly when she’s doing anger or distress and speaking quickly. At the end when it’s anguished despair and she remains in one place speaking slowly we hear every word and there’s a lesson to be learned here.
The stage is bare and the show runs without props except for one shawl. The opening of the floor in two different places to reveal first water and then fire is ingenious and the grey back drop onto which the rising factory is projected works well – designer Simon Kenny.
A word of praise too for sound designer Beth Duke and composer Niraj Chag. Duke gives us lots of immaculately synched very specific sounds such as the cat which is heard but not seen and Chag provides subtly atmospheric low level music.
But the show really belongs to Berthelsen who looked drained and exhausted as she tottered off stage at the end. I’ve seen actors playing Lear with less agony.
