A clever story of female fear, predatory men and gaslighting. A fun and thoughtful contribution to GrimFest.Rating
Good!
It’s great to see GrimFest spread its wings further this year. From its humble start as a week-long run at Old Red Lion Theatre to celebrate the spooky season, its third year sees it now running across three venues for much of October. Which makes it all the more embarrassing that it’s taken me over half the month to catch my first show!
That first show is The Constant Cold, and it’s very much the sort of show you expect for October. Which is no bad thing, we are here for ghost stories after all. Meg (writer Zoë Cooper) returns home in a state, sure she was being followed. Except not by a man, but by something she can’t describe, explaining it was more of a feeling. Her housemates, Elena and Ethan (Sian Marie Oliver and Benjamin Robinson), offer different responses. Ethan claims she has always imagined things and manufactures anxiety, whilst Elena offers a more sympathetic response, at least early on. Even when things start to go bump, there’s not much belief in her fears. In fact, Ethan turns even colder towards her pleas that something is outside.
It’s very clear that The Constant Cold is about the fear felt by so many women, of the predatory male who could be right around the corner. It’s well presented to convey that anxiety without it ever being forced. Meg’s worries are those any woman will share. And Ethan, as the male of the three, gives very much the all-too-common response to such fears: you’re overreacting, you’re imagining things, not all men are like that. It’s a clear case of gaslighting. It’s this aspect of the play that deserves further exploration if it were to be expanded beyond its current half-hour run. There’s plenty to admire in Cooper’s writing of such fears and concerns, suggesting much more could be made of it.
However, at just half an hour, it really does need much more body to it. The interlude, when Ethan tells a ghost story, works well in building a little extra tension and hinting at what is at the heart of the story. You wonder why this was not duplicated with another such story to extend the runtime. The scene has already been nicely set for such additional moments.
What’s not quite as well written are the relationships between the characters. We are told Megan and Ethan go back some way, and yet it never feels that that’s the case. Similarly, it’s never clear about Megan’s relationship with Elena. Without any sense of their shared history, it’s harder to interpret their reactions to one another as the evening unfolds.
Still, as you would hope for anything spooky, the lights and sound contribute plenty. The sound of wind outside is never overused, whilst the dimming of lights at the right moments helps focus our attention where it should be. Barons Court Theatre is the perfect place for such effects; this basement theatre always has a sense that things could creep out from the side doors at any moment!
The finale is perhaps just a little too obvious, though. Plus, it feels at odds with the lead-up that takes us there. But the idea is sound enough, and it wouldn’t take too much to tidy things up. The Constant Cold is certainly a rewarding contribution to Grimfest. It does what you want of anything playing at this festival; a few jumps, a little creepiness and the anticipation of what’s about to happen building throughout. It also shows great promise in Cooper’s writing. It’s a good show about the genuine fears that women face daily, nicely wrapped up in a bit of Halloween spookiness.
Written by Zoë Cooper
Technical Design by Megan Fortune
The Constant Cold has completed its current run as part of GrimFest 2025
