Review: Apostasy, Barons Court Theatre

You don’t hear about ‘cut and shut’ fraud much nowadays. If you don’t know, it’s where the undamaged front half of a crash-damaged car is welded together with the undamaged rear half of another. Apostasy is the theatrical equivalent of a cut and shut; the first half is the undamaged part, but the second half is a complete car crash! It is literally two different shows welded together. 

Let’s start with the good half, the first hour. The concept is great for a GrimFest show. Joey (a great turn by Christina Leitner) visits an occultist, Cameron (Matt Flynn), desperate to contact her dead soldier brother who died in Iraq. For horror fans, Iraq has many connotations, with so much rooted in the country’s history; The Exorcist starts here, for example. Cameron has a sinister and condescending edge as he leads Joey through rituals to bring her brother’s spirit into the body of the eerie Vessel (physically brilliant Erica Gouveia). It’s not a spoiler to tell you he succeeds, or so it seems. There are some truly great, chilling moments as Vessel writhes around, battling for release into the mortal realm. 

There are issues (mostly directorial), but ones easily rectified. The cast need to project more, with too much mumbled, lost under the sound of the pub upstairs. Then there are blocking problems. Barons Court Theatre is usually perfect for horror, with its tight spaces and creepy shadows, but here the tightness is used poorly, performers standing behind pillars for long stretches, leaving parts of the audience unable to see them. Even when the middle of the stage is used, those not in the front row struggle to see what is happening on the floor. 

These issues aside, had it ended here we could have left satisfied and right now I’d be tossing up between 3 or 4-stars (probably a 3 but one with so much promise). However, as we hit the pinnacle of the horror and the clock ticks past one hour we’re thinking ‘This is surely the end? Any moment now. It’s coming. Surely right after this scene. Or maybe this one…’

But it turns out that first hour is merely an intro, just one that seems like an almost complete story. We are then subjected to a further 50 minutes that is, quite frankly, a car crash. Every new scene feels like it should be the grand finale: I’m ready to grab my coat and escape on about five different occasions, only for, alas, another scene to come along. When Cameron tells Joey “We need to be getting on” I’m groaning at the lack of awareness that this is exactly what they should be doing! We are confronted with monologue after monologue as they try to explain how clever and deep it all is, and yes, there is a fantastic story to be had here, but this is not it. If you need extended speeches to explain yourself, you are doing something wrong.  This is not Shakespeare, it is GrimFest. If you want to explore the deeper themes that the first hour only hinted at, you need to consider why you need that first hour to get there. And if you put a two-hour show in a fringe venue, you NEED an interval. Although in hindsight, that would create a good time to just leave completely. 

Apostasy could – should – be an incredible show. The first half truly sends shivers down the spine, and that is what we want at GrimFest. What we do not want is all that great work to be undermined and forgotten, by making us endure another hour watching this cut and shut being welded together.

Presented by Nocebo Theatre Company
Written and directed by Matt Flynn and Christina Sophie Leitner

Apostasy has completed its run as part of this year’s GrimFest.