The subtleties of Tooley’s writing get a little lost in the noise
Directed by Jez Davess-Humphrey, Jacqueline Tooley’s Doomsday Baby takes place in the aftermath of a climate collapse event, following a mother (Jodyanne Fletcher Richardson) and her son (Joshua Horsfall) living in a bunker to protect themselves from environmental harm. Rather than centring heavily on the climate aspect of the setting, Tooley’s play follows more intimately the parent-child relationship between the two characters, from reminiscing about Adam’s dead father to a more disturbing aspect of Eve’s attraction to her son, in wake of her husband’s death. Positioned as a psychological horror, the show did effectively elicit a response of shock and disturbance, which sometimes contributed towards a really inviting sense of horror, and sometimes made for a difficult watch.
Doomsday Baby is at its best when it leant into the absurdity of it all. Towards the end of the second half of the show, malnutrition gets the best of the two characters, and we see them lose capacity of their surroundings, blurring the past, present and imaginary together, culminating in Eve taking advantage of this and her son to try and lure him into sex. It helps that this scene is accompanied by excellent lighting choices, pulsing and cold, as well as a distorted soundtrack of a song as familiar as the others played through the vinyl player throughout the story.
However, the horrifying peaks of the show aren’t allowed much breathing room to stand out amongst the mass of everything else happening. Naturally, the characters are in a heightened state, creating a lot of high stakes, emotional moments. Whilst this correlates to their setting, it does make for a rather cacophonous viewing experience, and I felt as though some of the brilliant subtleties of Tooley’s writing was somewhat lost amongst the noise. The show wants some levelling out, emotionally. I also wanted to be more fooled in the first half of the play. This levelling out could be achieved by way of some more moments of worldbuilding. Whilst there was plenty in terms of showing us the life of the family, some added context to the world they inhabit felt like a crucial part of the story that was slightly missing. Some thoughtful touches, such as the peaches growing in Scotland, indicated the potential for this to be done really tactfully, if done a little more.
Richardson and Horsfall both displayed some great acting chops. Horsfall played Adam with a sensitivity and panic which made him a character worth rooting for. Richardson showed an ability to switch between moments of care and moments of disturbance so smoothly that it effectively stunned the audience. The pair gave us characters we could feel for, and feel strongly about. Eve did feel portrayed as quite a young character, a touch which is definitely an enriching addition to her disturbance, though I did feel that in the first half I wanted to see more of her matriarchal authority, like we do towards the end of the play. More of this could have added a convincing layer to her abuse towards Adam.
With some tweaking and consideration for pace, Doomsday Baby has the potential to be a modern day Greek tragedy. Tooley is clearly an excellent horror writer, and the concept for the play is accessible and intriguing. The story deserves more clarity, something which I’m sure can be created with a little more space.