Afraid of the Dark?

Afraid of the Dark at the Charing Cross Theatre was billed on the posters as 'a new-brand of theatrical terror'. It was billed by Time Out as 'dreadful' and by the Guardian as 'as scary as a wet sock'. So it was with some trepidation one ventured to see it.

Happily, Afraid of the Dark turned out to be an enjoyable slice of hokum, vaguely reminscent in style and structure to the much-homaged Amicus portmanteau horror films such as Doctor Terror's House of Horrors as a mysterious old vaudevillian, Dr Charlier, visits the staff of a schlocky 1950s film studio and reveals that he knows rather too much about their pasts and futures.

Cheesey stuff, yes, and certainly not 'a new-brand of theatrical terror', but some effective frights are achieved by techniques that would have pleased the B-movie producers the show celebrates. The small cast, despite the odd variable accent, did a laudable job - particularly Julian Forsyth as Charlier -  and although the closing scenes didn't entirely satisfy Afraid of the Dark was a likeable little ride that hasn't deserved the kicking certain critics have given it.

The more things change...

‘This House’ at the National takes us back to the Seventies – a time when Britain had a hung parliament, a weak government and was facing a major economic crisis. Sound familiar? Well, in James Graham’s excellent play the parallels are not overdone but we’re clearly meant to see our current malaise reflected in the antics of the Labour and Conservative parties of thirty five years ago.

            The focus is on the Whips – the unsung heroes/villains of the parliamentary system. Chief amongst them as the play opens is the Old Labour Bob Mellish (Phil Daniels) and his canny Deputy Walter Harrison (Reece Dinsdale). Opposing them are the High Tories Humphrey Atkins (Julian Wadham) and Bernard ‘Jack’ Weatherill (an impeccably attired Charles Edwards).

            Things begin a little sluggishly - but understandably - with a lot of exposition about the political situation of 1974 but once past this hurdle the play whips along (no pun intended) through the seemingly endless crises that threatened to bring down the governments of Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan. There is much to enjoy for political geeks and the apolitical alike, and the performances, some of which initially seem rather broad, fit well with the tone of the piece which is at once comic yet oddly respectful of our much-traduced democratic representatives who are depicted for all their foibles as basically decent and honourable. All in all it reminds us that the kind of political horse-trading we’ve seen between the members of the Coalition in recent years is nothing new under the sun but also that  politics was a lot more interesting way back when there were bigger personalities around even amongst the backroom boys and real ideological and cultural differences between the big parties.