REVIEW: Blackout, Drayton Arms Theatre ✭✭

Blackout

Drayton Arms Theatre

13th October

2 Stars

Young playwright Tim Cook has picked up a strong reputation within Fringe theatres, with his play Crushed picking up the award for Best New Play at this year’s Brighton Fringe.

One of his earlier efforts, Blackout, is current playing at the Drayton Arms, an intriguing ‘post-apocalyptic psychological thriller’ set during a blackout in Swindon.

Cynical Mark (Tim Cook) has a new next door neighbor; the hyperactive and over-imaginative Tracy (Amani Zardoe). Afflicted with this new-found darkness, they keep each other company but are alarmed to discover that they are still in darkness when the sun does not rise the next morning.

It is an interesting premise and the play is peppered with some dramatic moments and sharp lines of dialogue. The main barrier seems to be that neither of the characters are particularly likeable. Mark is so misanthropic that you can’t feel that much attachment to him and Tracy is so irritating and hysterical that you can’t really root for her either.

The show is also lumbered with some musical interludes, which seem out of keeping with the tone of the play. Blackout is generally a gritty affair, so turning it into a quasi-musical seems ill judged, as well as practically baffling (would you either want to or be able to play the guitar during a total powercut?!).

Despite this, Cook and Zardoe both have nice singing voices, which make the songs more pleasing than they could have otherwise been. Despite playing frustrating characters, Cook and Zardoe are nuanced actors, and playing their parts with emotional depth; the scene where they discuss the final hours of Mark’s girlfriend is particularly well acted.

However, the constant wisecracking occasionally grates and the play feels uneven in parts. The pacing of the ending seems particularly questionable; it feels somewhat rushed with the big denouement at the end missing the mark as a result. The running time for the whole play is just over an hour; a more fleshed out ending would be highly welcome and would allow many of the unanswered questions to be resolved (namely why the lights have gone out in the first place).

The staging was simple but reasonably effective, although for a play entitled Blackout it wasn’t particularly dark. Obviously the actors need to be able to see, but it was odd to see the characters stumbling about in relatively good light. A bit more darkness might have also added a bit more fright to the handful of ‘jump scenes’ that are scattered throughout the production.

Blackout is a play from a writer clearly going places, with a fine premise and some occasional rays of light. Whilst it’s fantastic to see young playwrights putting on new material, a sharper script might be needed if it is to transfer elsewhere.

Blackout runs at the Drayton Arms Theatre until 17 October 2015