Bekah Sloan, Jake Norton, Lucy Brite and Filippo Fiori from the play, The Dark Room, at the Unity Theatre _320
THE Liverpool theatre group Ullaloom has carved out a name for itself for ghoulish theatre, and The Dark Room could certainly give its audiences sleepless nights.
It is spooky with sudden outbursts of violence, and does make you wonder just what did go on inside some Victorian photographer’s studios.
The plot involves a Victorian photographer named William and his project to photograph scenes from fairytales, some of the more gruesome ones.
There is Red Riding Hood, who gets attacked by a wolf, the Goosemaid who threatens her mistress and steals her identity, and Beauty and the Beast, among others.
Naive Rose arrives for a portrait chaperoned by her protective mother Mrs. Berkely, falls for William and secretly agrees to pose for him. By the show’s end, she discovers the ghastly secret behind the photos and the Dark Room.
Devised by the company, The Dark Room has its moments of humour including over-the-top upper-class toff Gerald, played with glee by Jake Norton, and a stuffed fox named Arthur to whom William often talks. But it is the sense of brooding menace which dominates.
Several of the fairytale scenes are posed by the performers, each one more dangerous-looking than the last, while William (a bearded Filippo Fiori) gets more psychotic.
Bekah Sloan is a perfect Rose, and Lucy Brite plays a number of roles from Mrs Berkely to a victim-to-be, hard-up street girl, Lily.
The sense of unease is underlined by a creepy music score from Patrick Dineen and the lighting design of Phil Saunders.
The show is still in development for later touring, but at this stage looks like a winner.
