Underworld
- Touring
Script - Nicola McCartney
Company - Frantic Assembly
www.franticassembly.co.uk
Directors - Steven Hoggett & Scott Graham
Choreographer - T.C.Howard
Venue - Traverse Theatre (0131 228 1404)
Dates - 5th-6th April, 8pm. then in Scotland until 17 May below
for dates & then to England. Later returning for 2 performances
to the Edinburgh Fringe at Pleasance 1 when also the company with Paines
Plough & Contact Theatre is presenting a new play at Traverse, Tiny
Dynamite.
Tickets - £9 (£4.50)
Reviewer - Daniel Winterstein
Horror is one of those genres that almost exclusively belongs to Hollywood.
Frantic Assembly's new play though is a reminder that the stage can
be just as effective at scaring the wits out of an audience. It combines
theatre and dance to give an intense and exciting show. Loosely based
on Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, Underworld is a story
of ghosts and violence. Four women are stranded in a remote house by
snow and a power cut. They include Lydia Baksh as a neurotic
psychic who can see nasty things in the house's past. The other women's
initial high spirits change to fear as the bad omens mount up. Although
the plot doesn't break any new ground, the characters are fleshed out
well, lifting the story considerably above the usual standard for the
genre.
The cast, who also include Sarah Beard, Georgina Lamb and Marcia Pook,
are excellent, both as dancers and actors. The mix of text and physical
theatre works very well, especially the high-octane nightmare sequences.
Music - powerful driving stuff such as Nine Inch Nails - is used
to good effect. From the very beginning until the final lights down,
the audience is never allowed to relax. The pace is (generally) fast.
Plot development is brilliantly done, and the tension builds up consistently
to the story's violent end.
In terms of thrills, there's nothing quite on the level of, say, Jack
Nicholson coming at you with an axe. After the superb build up, the
finale is something of a disappointment: the `fight dance' is the play's
weakest point, and is stretched out too long. Overall though, Underworld
is different and exciting. Ghosts, murder and dance; genuinely scary.
© Daniel Winterstein 5th May 2001
Editor's Comment: Full house, exciting theatre, young enthusiastic audiences,
stimulating, striking approach to drama, it is astonishing that this
company has recently had a surprising funding decision by the English
Arts Council. I hope this will be successfully resolved - it should
be.
The funding was resolved - Frantic Assmebly continues to exist.
