It was interesting to see Going Dark just a few days after Consellations as they are both ostensibly based on complex science but in fact are more concerened with human relationships. In my view Going Dark is a much better play as John Mackay gives a superb performance as Max, an astronomer who is gradually using his sight. Through extraordinary use of sound and light, including alarming total darkness, we gain some insight into what it must be like to be blind and to share some of Max's fear of losing his job and his ability to look after his six year old son. Sound and Fury were responsible for the remarkably immersive Kursk and this is another moving and unsettling experience. - David Baxter
12 Dec 12
For me, the best part of this was the mystery of being led to my seat in the dark, and wondering who was sitting next to me. Knowing I was safe (it's the Young Vic, after all) yet wondering if the person next to me was a stooge in night-vision goggles or carried a scimitar to cut off my head, or other such fanciful notions. This produced a sense of wonder which lingered throughout the show but which was not sufficiently capitalised upon. For me, the problem was that I've watched too many BBC2 Horizon type science shows, so that learning about suns and stars and starstuff and expanding universes was not new. Nor was it developed into something original and fresh. Therefore the lessons that the solo performer gives about the universe came across as just another Royal Academy Christmas Lecture for children, rather than some provocative wonder-generating revelation. So, for me, all the focus was on Max (played by John MacKay as a gentle caring science nerd without Brian Cox rock star dynamism) and his decaying sight. His eye degeneration meant his son, Leo (a disembodied child's voice) worried movingly about his father losing sight of him. MacKay's most exciting scene shows him preparing Leo's lunch in a blindfold to Booker T's Green Onions. But overall, I felt the science was a little old hat, and the blindness as a metaphor for the expanding universe (ceasing to see itself) a little too on the nose. I'd recommend this as a primer to those who haven't used up countless of the few hours of their lives watching BBC2. And I will admit that when I walked back across Waterloo Bridge, I looked at the starlight (sunlight) shining on David Shrigley's enormous South Bank poster, and it's caption "Fight the Nothingness," and I shuddered. - steveatplays
21 Mar 12
This takes place in the round (well, square actually) in a small dark space – sometimes very dark, sometimes completely dark. There’s one actor and three small spaces in which he performs. The night sky is sometimes projected onto the low ceiling. The only other character is a child whose voice is part of Dan Jones’ extraordinary soundscape, the impact of which is heightened during the periods of complete darkness.
The play tells the story of a single dad who is going blind. He also happens to be an astronomer, so his story is interwoven with that of the universe. You do learn about the universe, but more importantly it’s a moving tale of the effect of oncoming blindness on this little family. Even though you only hear his voice, six-year-old Leo seems as real as his dad, who we do see (I would name check him, but I wasn’t prepared to pay £4 for the playscript and he’s not named on the website!).
This is on a much smaller scale than Sound & Fury’s extraordinary Kursk, but technically well accomplished and in its way its a little gem. Traipsing out of the front of the theatre and round the back to enter seemed pointless (unlike Hamlet, where it had a purpose), but I was enthralled by this short 80 minute piece which I would recommend as something different – if you’re not scared of the dark, of course! - Gareth James
