Review: Werewolf

Scared of the dark? The latest madcap thriller from New Zealand’s Binge Culture is not for the faint of heart. A twist on the classic Mafia game, Werewolf is a slick, silly, shivery hour which starts when the door of Summerhall’s basement space is slammed shut. It’s a seven day “containment period”, they tell us. Just to make sure that whatever’s going on out there stays out there.

Performed by Hannah Kelly, Joel Baxendale and Stella Reid (whose eerie, award-winning Basement Tapes used precisely this basement back in 2018), the trio begin with the jokey joviality of summer camp wardens. It’s giggly and light, with silly yet tame audience interaction. But as the days pass, and the thumbs-up meter marking our welfare starts to wobble, cracks in our bunkered-down community start to get serious. After all, everything feels far less funny in the middle of the night. 

Binge Culture toy with theatrical horror tropes – to make us gasp, definitely, but also to show how spooky herd mentalities can become in a crisis. Is this charismatic cast leading us to safety, or leading us astray? Are we following our noses, or are we lambs to the slaughter? Half-panto, half-whodunnit, Werewolf is perfect Fringe fun.