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How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 14 April 2014
This article is a review of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. |
"You sound like an old person,” Oscar (Martin Quinn) to Eli (Rebecca Benson)
No she doesn’t. Eli is meant to be a hundreds year old vampire in the body of a child, yet the dialogue and performance suggest neither. Am not convinced by any of the ensemble, nor the script. Novelist John Ajvide Lindqvist’s disturbing 1980s-set vampire fable has already been adapted twice into Swedish and American movies to mixed success. Neither truly captured the menace pulsating from the source. And now this second stage play interpretation attempts to project something fresh, but lands with a clunk.
No she doesn’t. Eli is meant to be a hundreds year old vampire in the body of a child, yet the dialogue and performance suggest neither. Am not convinced by any of the ensemble, nor the script. Novelist John Ajvide Lindqvist’s disturbing 1980s-set vampire fable has already been adapted twice into Swedish and American movies to mixed success. Neither truly captured the menace pulsating from the source. And now this second stage play interpretation attempts to project something fresh, but lands with a clunk.
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Relocating from Stockholm suburb Blackeberg, Sweden to an unnamed Scottish location, actors stream across the stage to give the feel of a bustling cast (actually less than a dozen in total). Primarily the set is a dark wood containing a climbing frame, though through skilful minimalism the production design is manipulated into multiple locales. As a murder takes place in the background, in the foreground we have a locker room, and to the side a newsagent kiosk selling sweets. Hakan (Clive Mendus) we come to quickly find out is accosting denizens to extract blood for Eli. Simultaneously, 12-year old Oscar is being grimly bullied by classmates, while being neglected by his alcoholic mother (Susan Vidler), who has been divorced by her in-the-closet ex-husband (Gary McKay) – sexual muddying is a seam running through.
Murder and bullying predominate LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, as a burgeoning bond between the innocent Oscar and ambiguous Eli arises. Providing mutual comfort as they slowly circle one-another, the dark forces arrayed around them attempt to close in; except that a theatrical horror just doesn’t cut it – the jeopardy-soaked atmosphere of previous incarnations of the story is absent, and in its place are punctuations of leaden, broad humour. THE WOMAN IN BLACK stage experience also suffered a lack of tension that was prevalent in the novel and the recent film, but at least the play didn’t resort to mild japes. Maybe the team behind LET THE RIGHT ONE IN realised there might be an absurdity to the proceedings and decided to head off any laughing?
Technically, the production is a treat, as one now is so spoilt to expect. A movie-quality score enlivens, while the lighting and scene transitions dazzle – particularly shifting fluidly from a swimming pool to the inside of a train. Odd flourishes of synchronised movement to represent sorrow and bile do not rescue, especially a dire climax, so misjudged and inept. A play never need suffer in comparison to a film; for examples, see The National’s double-whammy of HIS DARK MATERIALS and WAR HORSE.
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