Review: Stay Here and Die With Me, Drayton Arms Theatre

Review: Stay Here and Die With Me, Drayton Arms Theatre

Summary

Rating

60

Good

Aidan Parsons has created an intriguingly bleak yet fascinating landscape; It just needs a little more detail to grip you fully.

The tone for Stay Here and Die With Me is set from the moment we enter. Dimly lit, a dishevelled Mac (Charles Ison) stares blankly into space, accompanied by ominous and moody music. It’s not hard to imagine that, wherever we are, it’s not a place we would wish to be.

When things start in earnest, the soundscape is superbly maintained; clanking metals, monotonous rumblings, and is that screaming, or just distant wind whistling through old pipes? It really does keep you on edge throughout. The foreboding announcements that keep repeating don’t help either, warning inhabitants that the area will soon be overrun, and anyone wishing to live should make their way through the hatch before it is closed for good.

And that is where the story comes in. Unsurprisingly, it’s as dark and brooding as the sound demands. A simply split stage gives us two separate times: the first, containing the desolate Mac. It’s only when girlfriend Charlie (Ericka Posadas) joins him, desperately trying to rouse him, that we see any real life in him. But it’s clear Mac has given up, that he has no intention of moving on, resigning himself that his time is over. It’s all very bleak but very absorbing as we watch all hope of survival drain from Mac and all hope of a future together snatched from Charlie.

The other half of the stage takes us through the hatch. Charlie is here, soon joined by newcomer Ellis, the standout Molly Cutter. Cutter delivers a talkative pod mate who demonstrates all the fight to survive that was lacking in Mac, willing to try to make the most of what is surely a futile existence. The common denominator is Charlie, broken from watching the man she loved give up on life and on her. Because how do you continue when you have just watched the person you love consign themselves to death?

This split staging is highly effective and realised through Aidan Parsons writing and direction as well as Andrew Macmillan’s simple set design. Blackouts allow Charlie to move from one side to the other and take up where each scene left off, slowly showing us her desperation to get Mac to live, whilst he simply fights for the right to end it in his own terms, however selfish it may seem.

It offers plenty of intrigue, creating a mysterious, dystopian world. Without ever really spelling out much, we understand that bunker life is all they have ever known. Ellis’ amazement that things such as a dog ever existed and a throwaway comment about seeing mountains through a window- back in a time windows existed- all assist in building this incredibly bleak landscape. There’s also talk of upstairs, leaving you to wonder who is in command and who really is the enemy that is coming for them.

As fascinating as it all is, it leaves you wanting just a little more meat on its skinny bones. There are hints of what more this play could be with further development, and whilst the vagueness is welcomed there is plenty that could be built upon. It certainly deserves a more satisfying ending than it currently has, where the audience is left confused if that is it or not!

Stay Here and Die With Me is already wonderfully dark and intriguing. An interesting piece of writing that shows plenty of promise if this play is allowed time to develop from these dark beginnings.

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Written, directed and sound design by: Aidan Parsons
Set Design by: Andrew Macmillan

Stay Here and Die With Me plays at Drayton Arms Theatre until 16 March. Further information and bookings here.