2 STARS, July 17-19. Black Mountain fails to thrill Richard Davies at the OSO Arts Centre, Barnes
Copyright: Marc Pearce Photography
The late Harold Pinter undoubtedly had a profound impact on British theatre. Unfortunately he also has a lot to answer for, due to his legion of imitators. Brad Birch is an up-and-coming playwright, and holder of a prestigious Pinter Commission, whose play ‘Black Mountain’ was performed by the Wild Duck Theatre company at the OSO Arts Centre as part of the Barnes Fringe Festival.
The one act drama opens with Rebecca (Fleur de Henrie Pearce) and Paul (Arthur Velarde) struggling to make themselves heard over the sound of birdsong, having just arrived at their Airbnb rental near the Black Mountain in Wales. It is not immediately obvious they are a couple. Eventually you gather there has been a relationship between them, though perhaps no longer. Nor does it seem they have come away to rekindle their relationship. Instead, Rebecca seems intent on making Paul suffer for some unknown hurt that he has caused her.
Well, we can probably all remember holidays a little bit like that. Normally you patch things up after a few glasses of vino. But not this time. When Rebecca tells Paul that she wants to “see him bleed”, you can see where this mini-break is heading.
Under normal circumstances, this would be Paul’s cue to run away, very fast. (Indeed, this was the advice I offered my 19 year old son and reviewing partner, if he ever found himself in a similar situation). For reasons we do not understand, Paul chooses not to do so. Clearly, Paul is also unaware of Chekhov’s maxim that if a gun is introduced to the stage, it must be fired by the end of the final act. Instead, Paul nonchalantly walks around a wheelbarrow of woodblocks prominently placed stage right with a large axe inside it.
There are strong clues too in other props – particularly the Stephen King book which both characters pick up to read at various points. Whether deliberately or not, the play pays homage to those disturbingly misogynist 1980s psychological thrillers ‘Misery’ and ‘Fatal Attraction’ in which a woman scorned unleashes her vengeful fury on a man. What could Paul have done, you wonder to make a young, attractive woman with all her life ahead of her, behave in this way? Either he has done something very bad indeed, or she is completely deranged.
The best I can say about the play is that it is only 70 minutes long. Otherwise, it suffers from a linear narrative, lack of character development and meaningless plot details. It takes more than staccato dialogue and cold stares to make psychological menace; there must be some suspense and I’m afraid there is none.
At the end, I was left puzzled by one detail. Halfway through, there had been a mysterious phone call, which I’d assumed was part of the spooky atmosphere setting. But then at the climax, the phone went off again and after a few rings, an audience member made a big play of digging a phone out of her handbag and switching it off. Was either phone part of the play? I will probably never know.
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