Went to see The Believers at the Tricycle Theatre yesterday with my hardcore drama-student friend. Wandering down Kilburn High Road at 12 o'clock and there's about 9 riot vans and a fella sitting outside a pub nursing his bloody forehead. What a lovely place for a theatre.
The show itself wasn't bad, though. It's by this Frantic Assembly company, who seem to be known for their physical theatre, so there's lots of high-wires involved (for a couple of scenes the whole cast are pretty much standing on the wall, just going about their business like normal), which I wasn't expecting from such a tiny show.
Basic plot synopsis:
A lot of the reviews are banging on about how it's the most terrifying play since the Woman in Black, but I'm not sure I agree. With the Woman in Black the end leaves you with this feeling of dread (with
the whole twist of the woman in the production being the actual woman and not an actress meaning that everything's about to go pear-shaped for the actor), while in the Believers it tries to lead you into thinking that there's something supernatural going on (with one of the parents being possessed by some evil force), when in the end it's basically just that
the perfect child of the believers kills the other aggressive, awful, devil baby child. There's no real explanation as to why, it just happens. Then the play ends.
I mean, it's unnerving in places (the "12 seconds of chaos" scene was pretty chilling (inspired by
this bit of the Cloverfield trailer). Just blinding flashes > horrifying screams > pitch black silence > repeat), but there's no justification behind why
the golden child becomes a murderer, so it all just falls a bit flat.
I think it's also the most times I've heard "strawberry float" in a play. And it was only 75 minutes long.