Review: Murder in the Dark (Touring)

Tuesday, 19th September 2023 at York Theatre Royal.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Murder in the Dark is a trippy thriller from writer Torben Betts that takes its own sweet time to lay foundations before unleashing a pretty gripping final segment. What really impresses though, somewhat surprisingly, is how well this show courts comedy. Not just in the sense of flashes of light relief before the inevitable jump-scare, but playful, character-driven comedy which stands up very well within what is also a successfully tense thriller.

A car crash in poor weather sees a gaggle of Londoners stranded in an isolated nowhere, approximately a couple of miles from nothing and nobody. Quirky loner Mrs Bateman is on-hand to see that the group have somewhere to stay overnight and puts them up in a creepy ramshackle property with skittish electrics (of course) and loo outside in the darkness (naturally). Rumours circulate about this chatty oddball but nothing is concrete, and Susie Blake gives a stellar performance which rests on a deft balancing act of charismatic comedy with a sinister underbelly.

Under direction of Philip Franks, the Londoners offer plenty of tension even before the spooky happenings start their drip feed. Tim Chambers does an excellent job of making Danny a pretty typical walking midlife crisis: showy suit, beautiful young lass on his arm, and resentful kid and former wife trailing behind. But Chambers allows us to find the lighter elements of Danny’s character even while very much inviting our judgement.

Rebecca Charles is a classic unimpressed ex as Rebecca, calmly aiming to keep the peace between father and son, while Jonny Green captures the caustic attitude of a wronged teen very nicely. Owen Oakeshott provides a suitably strait-laced brother for our self-centred silver fox and Laura White neatly plays to the “younger model” trope as Sarah, the unimpressed twenty-something keeping Danny on his toes.

The anticipated eeriness is delivered well through Paul Pyant’s gloomy lighting and Max Pappenheim’s impactful sound design, which confidently taps into various expected elements of a thriller and leaves one particular shrill sound playing in our heads… Simon Kenny’s versatile set design also helps more than a little, complete with the means for some great surprise entrances (and one particular exit, as it happens).

But the success of this piece lies in the increasingly fragmented narrative structure and a cast who can carry the load of those intense scenes specific to thrillers which can so easily lack any real atmosphere or credibility. There are times when it’s anyone’s guess as to where the plot is hurtling, and that’s as it should be – yes, there are some elements which are far more effective (the sharp precision of a spoon-related sequence for instance) than others (a full ensemble, torch-lit sequence), but I was pretty gripped as the revelations arrived thick and fast towards the closing moments.

I wouldn’t say we reach a thoroughly satisfying conclusion in terms of jaw-dropping originality; it’s not hard to find commonalities with other great stories, and my mind ran the gamut from Dickens (I won’t say which) to Shutter Island, The Ring, Inside Number 9 and any whodunnit of merit. But in a way, that’s what helps to muddy the waters as we try to sift between potential answers to the play’s many intrigues. It’s very well done and while some won’t like the sudden sense of being pushed into a bamboozling house of mirrors, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’d far rather feel intrigued to see how the threads find each other – or indeed logic – than sit through an easy, lineal conclusion.

With a great cast to carry the tension and plenty of twists and turns, Murder in the Dark is well worth seeing.

Murder in the Dark is at York Theatre Royal until September 23rd 2023 – more information and tickets can be found here.

Images: Pamela Raith