Darkness Within

An engaging, prickly play

★★★
archive review (edinburgh) | Read in About 1 minute
Published 01 Aug 2007
33330 large
39658 original

If you've come to the Fringe looking for light drama or comedy, this is not the show for you. A journey through society's unwashed nether parts, Darkness Within forces the audience to question their relationship with people that many of us would rather shun. Three lonely characters tell us their stories and asks to be heard, possibly understood, not to be pitied. As we witness the breakdown of communication between the characters, the show presents a fiercely critical take on a patronizing counselling industry.

Emotive monologues leave the audience feeling uncomfortably close as the actors look from eye to eye asking, "what makes you think you’re so different from me?" but there is no central narrative to stitch the scenes together properly. Bizarre intermittent lectures about academic theories of communication fall flat rather than illuminating the relationships on stage. This remains, however, an engaging, prickly play, which attempts to give a voice to those marginalised by society.