A happy childhood in a play is like having a Chekhov’s gun: you are waiting for it to go off, for something to go wrong and Darkling at the Bush Theatre is no different.
I confess I knew nothing of Bhopal, where the play is set, and so my thoughts were going in all different directions about what might unfold, but nothing prepared me.
She (Linnea Berthelsen) lives with her father and sister and is a bubbly, happy child despite the poverty.
A solo performance, it is a beautiful portrayal bringing to life a childlike energy, innocence, honesty and vivid imagination.
When construction begins on a large factory, She describes it as creature-like, looming over the community, which in turn is excited, seeing it as a source of optimism and excitement for the potential jobs it will bring.
She is a dreamer. She is ambitious. She wants to run the factory. She wants more than marriage and to live with her sister somewhere different. She will get her extraordinary life, but it isn’t one she imagined.
There is a stay with a relative that doesn’t end well, and all the time I’m waiting for whatever the play is building towards to happen, but this isn’t it.
As She hits her teens, life starts to gnaw at her dreams and ambitions, but nothing prepares her (or me) for the nature and scale of the industrial disaster that unfolds.
Titas Haldar’s descriptive script, coupled with the emotional depth of Berthelsen’s performance, brings the full horror to life.
Wave after wave of gruesome consequences hits; the relentlessness starts to numb.
The play serves to highlight the power imbalance between American corporations, those in Government and the ordinary people who already have so little.
With a sparse stage, the action is distilled and focused. Telling the story through one girl’s eyes makes the tragedy all the more acute.
Final thoughts
Darkling takes its time over how it ends to the point where it loses some pace, and the second half is not an easy watch. But it is powerful and vivid storytelling, vigorously performed.
I’m giving it four stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Darkling, Bush Theatre
Written by Titas Haldar
Directed by Matthew Xia
Cast: Linnea Berthelsen
Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes with no interval
Booking until 24 October, visit the Bush Theatre website for more details and to buy tickets.
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