Synopsis How far can you see? A mile? A hundred miles? or to the furthest shores of the Universe to a far away galaxy? It's Max's job to ask the cosmic questions. Passionate about astronomy, he works as the narrator at the city's planetarium where he challenges his dwindling audiences with the mysteries of the stars and science. But in a society that is both polluting the night sky with light and happier to explore the heavens on a smartphone, he feels increasingly out of place. When his own life takes an unexpected turn, Max discovers that seeing doesn't necessarily bring insight and that understanding the universe requires and different kind of vision... Going Dark is a one-man show devised by Sound&Fury. Using the company's innovative theatre vocabulary of immersive surround sound design, total darkness and imaginative lighting, it reawakens our wonder at the cosmos and reveals how one man's vision becomes illuminated by darkness. Running time: 1hr 10mins Clare
You enter a pitch black auditorium with a no bags rule, softly spoken ushers and very little visual awareness of the auditorium. Before the play has even begun, Going Dark is an experience.
The story revolves around the life of Max and his six-year-old son, Leo. Max is an astrology lecturer and spends much of the play talking clearly and peacefully about the cosmos. It's clear that he derives a lot of solace from his occupation, and it is this feeling that dominates the play. Sitting in very dim seats, the audience is guided across a planetarium ceiling of the more simple astrological arrangements, being softly reminded of space and our position within it.
A one-man show, perhaps the most charming feature is Leo, present in the form of a clever voiceover that has the intonations of a six-year-old down to the finest detail. The story between father and son is equally charming, weaving Max’s own boyhood with his position as a parent and the overhanging threat of life’s limitations.
Gently funny, the play meanders through its 75-minute run. The facts aren’t as hitting as they could be; they are closer to initial science lessons than keen adult curiosity, but this chimes with the tempo of the story. It’s not scene-changing theatre, but for an evening of unobtrusive entertainment, this latest immersive offering from Sound&Fury (the company behind Kursk) is lovely.
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
[TMA] member. 2004 - to close for an estimated 18 to 24 months to undergo an essential overhaul costing £12.5 million. Re-opened Oct. 2006 with the new auditoria named in honour of two theatre women, designer Maria Bjornson and director Clare Venables who died in 2002 and 2003 respectively. The Maria seats 160 while the Clare seats 80.
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