Immersive and intimate, this scratch night showcased some promising new writing.
Dressed in spider webs and spooky lighting, The London Irish Centre welcomes Slàinte! Theatre’s Halloween scratch night.
Each month, Slàinte! Theatre, a company focused on promoting new writing from Scottish and Irish creatives, hosts a Heads or Tales? scratch night. If, like me, you are unfamiliar with that concept, you are in for a treat (no tricks involved). This night we had:
Mercurial by Rosaleen Cox
Black Forest by Valerie O’Connor
Do as thou wilt by Johnjoe Irwin
Till Death Do Us Part by Carla McPherson
For the first half of the show we watch the first scenes of three different plays and, during the interval, the audience have the opportunity to make their own predictions about how the pieces will end using little post-it notes, which makes for such a fun and immersive experience. The second half of the night kicks-off with a fourth play, which we watch in its entirety, before moving on to revealing the audience’s predictions. Then, the second halves of the plays are acted out. Expect a lot of plot-twists, light-bulb moments and audible gasps.
For this month’s scratch night, in honour of All Hallows Eve, all four of the plays presented dealt with themes of horror, death and the occult, some laced with comedy, others with solemnity.
The hosts of the show, Kari and Iona, who are also the artistic director of Slàinte! and producer of the event respectively, create a friendly casual atmosphere and make us feel right at home.
The entire team of directors and actors do a beautiful job at setting up the scene for each of the plays, using minimal set, props or lighting, proving that the most important ingredient in theatre-making is, above all, the unspoken promise between audiences and creatives to mutually suspend their disbelief. That’s what creates the magic. The clever use of the space is also noteworthy and the whole show has a very immersive and intimate feeling, which lends itself perfectly to the Halloween atmosphere.
While spooky season will be well over by the time their next event comes about -on the 30th of November – do not fret, for Slàinte! Theatre is hosting their first Celtic Cabaret night, which promises music, poetry, comedy and so much more and is guaranteed to make for a fun night out!