Digging Deep: The Adventures of Sky – the Reluctant Hero

Sky has not slept a wink in six months and it’s 3am. She takes us with her on a journey, perhaps trying to show the audience the fragile state of mind of people suffering with mental health problems or how they perceive the world?

I say perhaps as, to be honest, I really can’t tell. To put this into perspective, I understood both the Matrix and Inception the first time, yet I can’t work out what this play is about? Nikky Norton Shafau is the sole actress and her performance is accompanied by a few lighting effects, some projected animation and some audio, but rather than enhance the experience, these seem to just add to the confusion.

The problem seems to be that the play is trying very hard to be something, but it isn’t altogether sure what it wants to be. There is no story to speak of, and it is very hard to put anything into context.  It takes quite a while for the play to get going and when it does, you start wishing it hadn’t.

Sharfau tries to get the audience involved in parts, but unsuccessfully as it is done in such a way as no-one knows whether they are supposed to respond, or quite frankly what is expected of them. As for the end of the play, someone bursts in through the back doors and asks “everyone with a golden key to come with him” and stressed only those members of the audience with a key were to go. They filed out brandishing paper golden keys although I don’t know where to (for I didn’t have such a key) and for everyone else, the play just stopped. There was confusion amongst the audience, one person left expressing their displeasure and eventually everyone else filed out – no applause, just lots of unhappy comments by the audience.

With no plot, no story and no overall message, there are better ways you can spend your evening.

– Geoff Hodge