Review: Killer (Shoreditch Town Hall)

If you’ve ever wondered in darker moments what it might be like to be steered through a labyrinth of tunnels on your way to some unspeakable dungeon-related fate, you may feel you’ve come close to it after this promenade performance at The Ditch, in the underbelly of Shoreditch Town Hall.

These lower regions – complete with swirling mist, low ceilings and exposed brick – have been transformed by designer Soutra Gilmour into a dimly lit and thoroughly menacing backdrop for Killer, Philip Ridley‘s brand new series of monologues about, well… killers of one sort or another.

The three pieces are all performed live by the virtuosic John Macmillan, who engages completely with each character and seizes every opportunity offered by Ridley’s writing, but he need scarcely be there in person for all we see of him. The first narrative takes place in the pitch dark, with the narrator apparently pacing around the room and the audience sitting four-square, facing the walls. A clear warning about this darkness is given before the show begins, but it’s an undeniably uncomfortable sensation – rather like listening to a maniac podcasting in the dead of night, with the lights out and the curtains drawn.

Headphones are supplied and worn throughout, and hearing all three narratives in this way creates a curious mix of sensations – on the one hand alienation from the drama as something that’s shared with the rest of the audience; on the other an intensely personal experience, with the narrator whispering insidiously (and in stereo) right inside your head.

Each macabre fantasy is more outlandish than the last, but the strongest writing comes in the second monologue, where a prim and prosaic carer rescues his elderly charge from a horde of sledgehammer-wielding killers, in a story that has more than a touch of Shaun of the Dead about it.

The darkness and low lighting, combined with the disembodiment of the narrator, means the production also leans very heavily on its sound. Ben and Max Ringham, together with George Dennis, have created a superbly atmospheric score to accompany the stories, together with some particularly grisly sound effects. And lighting designer Azusa Ono punctuates the action with some eerie work, particularly in the third and final scene.

Director Jamie Lloyd has taken plenty of risks in this production, not least hiding his solo actor from the audience for 95 per cent of the show, which feels more like an immersive soundscape than a theatre performance.

But this is not an experience anyone will forget in a hurry.

Killer runs at Shoreditch Town Hall until 8 April.