‘Incredibly stylish surreal theatre held back by the original script’
Walking out after watching Darkside felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulder, as if I awoke from a deep slumber. In a comedy that would be a criticism, but for a surreal fever dream of a show trying to walk in the steps of “Pink Floyd – The Wall”, this is high praise.
Based off the original radio play by Tom Stoppard, the play builds on the original by turning it into a full play with dance sequences added both into and between scenes during which tracks from “The Dark Side of the Moon” driving the surrealism and dream like story further towards the extreme. The result is a slightly messy, thought provoking and unique play that while understandably cannot match the tour de force of Pink Floyd’s music or film, walks confidently in their shadow.
The story follows Emily McCoy in varying states of reality interacting with various characters who abstractly represent both philosophers, their constructs and different ideas, as she tries to find meaning and understanding in both herself and the world. These scenes are all somewhat convoluting and confusing to contextualise in the world but this strangely helps to create this feeling of sharing the enigmatic of Emily. The intricate, haunting dance sequences that take place further escalate this dream like state and push the play into a far better emotional place than the original radio play does. It evokes similarities with how The Wall does with it’s animated sequences during it’s songs, breaking down the barriers of reality or rather building them.
Following the plot’s literal point is not easy especially in a quite disorientating opening 10 minutes, however once you have found your feet you can instead focus on the philosophy and subtext littered throughout. Anyone with a passing knowledge of philosophy or none at all will enjoy both the musings, questions posed and different characters impositions on situations and ideas. It can be clunky by explaining certain concepts too much – it would do better to let the audience dwell on questions and concepts themselves , rather than pretending there is a humongous depth to the dialogue itself.
The show is far stronger in style than substance, the only major additions are the transformation of radio play to stage but then the dance sequences, but both benefit the play immensely. Taking greater steps to improve the dialogue and structure would do wonders but as it stands it’s a beautiful play to watch that leaves you with a lot of interesting ideas and questions – but the original script is a leash on the shows true potential. I really want this rabbit hole of a play to go deeper and commit to it’s absurdity and incongruity more than it already has.