Black Velvet is an imaginative form of art exploring the darkness of grief and loss as a young adult
Black Velvet is a dark exploration of the effects of loss on two young adults. The plot involves two characters Llew (Charles Ison) and Aoife (Christina Knight) who meet in a graveyard as that’s where Aoife was currently sleeping and Llew was there to see his Mother’s grave. Throughout the play the two discuss their families, childhoods and their losses.
The play starts very dynamic and witty, however, the piece loses momentum and at points feels stagnated particularly in the last 20 minutes of the show. The writing by Christina Knight is at times very comical and lively (to begin) but with the large monologues by both characters, it loses the spark. It’s possible that the audience was waiting too long to find out the real reason Aoife was sleeping in the graveyard. when we finally did- we had simply lost interest.
The themes Black Velvet explores – grief, loss, suicide- are deep and rich and something almost everyone can relate to. These are imaginatively displayed through the location setting of the graveyard. The set design of the graves, rubbish and flowers was well and aided in painting the picture of the location. Despite this, there were elements of confusion in the set design. Aoife appears sleeping behind Llew’s mother’s gravestone which felt peculiar as given her plot line the obvious choice would have been Aoife sleeping behind her own mother’s grave which was next to Cerri Anne’s (Llew’s mother).
The execution of bringing the writing to life from both Knight and Ison was at times fresh and sharp. But, there were points where simply words and sentences were lost from the audience as the dialogue became shouting matches. There is an argument that there were too many unnecessary minor plot lines in the script. How did Llew being a young father aid the story of grief? The long phone call with his daughter and Aoife?
Overall, the Black Velvet is an explorative piece centred around grief, loss and family but the execution of this fails to match the heavy themes. The overuse of shouting, the long monologues, to the unnecessary minor plot lines makes the viewing quite jarring. The beginning is comedic and sharp but there is a gear shift where the humour vanishes. If the comedy element stayed throughout the piece this would aid the play greatly. However, this is a show with great potential.