Jerome Meyer and Alec Snow in Darkness. Photo: Phil Erbacher
The team behind Darkness – and it’s quite a team, Andrew Bovell, Zoey Dawson, Dino Dimitriadis, Dan Giovannoni and Megan Wilding – invites audiences to ‘experience darkness’. This new work was inspired by certain events that took place in 1816, known now as the Year Without Summer because in Europe and other parts of the world the weather was unseasonally cold and wet, average temperatures plummeted, crops failed and snow fell in August. At the time these strange weather patterns went unexplained. It took a year for news to reach the UK of a massive volcanic explosion in Indonesia the previous April, which killed thousands, and threw huge volumes of ash into the atmosphere.
In June 1816, a group of friends – Lord Byron; his physician (and writer) John Polidori; Percy Bysshe Shelley; Shelley’s wife-to-be Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin; and Mary’s stepsister Claire Clairemont – were holidaying near the lakes in Geneva. ‘Incessant rain’, Mary would later write, kept them indoors and one night they ‘amused themselves’ by taking turns to read from Fantasmagoriana, a collection of German horror tales.
And so to the Darkness now showing in Newtown. The characters are the same, but not the same, because we are not in 1816 but in the 21st century. Unexplained darkness has fallen, people are afraid, there are curfews, electricity blackouts and helicopters policing overhead. Perce (Jerome Meyer), Mary (Caroline L George ) and Claire (Imogen Sage ) manage to get themselves across to the mansion rented by By (Alec Snow) and Dore (Zoran Jevtic).
And what a glorious setting for Gothic tales is this space (in the old Newtown School of Arts building). Tall windows, great candlesticks, a clawfoot bath, faux marble floors, mists that evoke cold. It’s hard to imagine this performance without the venue. The visual appeal of Darkness is integral to its unfolding. Set designer Isabel Hudson, lighting designer Benjamin Brockman and music and sound designer Danni Esposito have excelled.
The arrival of the Shelley party is unexpected. Our 21st century By has been discussing ways to end it all with a concoction of drugs prepared by his faithful Dore. This news is met with some alarm and various degrees of outrage and resistance. Historical truths are interwoven, and it is not long before lines from Byron’s evocative poem ‘Darkness’ are voiced by Snow. But though it’s inspired by relationships that took place 200 years ago, Bovell says this Darkness is a play about today’s uncertain times and how we respond to them. So when Claire tells By she is pregnant, his response is along the lines of why would anyone want to bring a child into this world, before he accuses Claire of selfishness and casts doubt on his paternity.
These five characters, though linked by love (and cruelty) seem locked in their own lives and receive little compassion or understanding from each other. As happened in 1816, each takes a turn at telling their own disturbing story, some much darker than others. Sage is a standout in her imagining of Claire’s tale of an unloved child, Allegra. Jevtic’s Dore’s tale is disturbing and mystical, (which is to be expected of a man who would go on to write The Vampyre.)
The creative team behind Darkness has chosen not to indulge in vampires and supernatural tales better known to us. This was a surprise; I was expecting more from George’s Mary character.
Darkness is quite filmic, told in segments and beautiful to look at, with its Goth/Gothic costuming and atmospheric set. An interesting experience. And not entirely without hope, which – to quote an earlier poet than Byron – springs eternal.
Until 12 March at The Library, 5 Eliza Street, Newtown
Tickets: From $95
@ExperienceDarkness / Ticketek
