Review: About a Goth – Black Box

The term ‘black humour’ has never seemed as apt as it does whilst watching Helen Donnelly’s production of About a Goth. Written by Tom Wells and acted alone by Rob Killay this is a coming of age story set against the back drop of the turmoils – both inner and outer – of a goth by the name of Nick. The Black Box (an equally as apt venue) is host to this one man play and the only pieces of set are a bed, situated at the front of the stage, accompanied by a pink balloon.

It’s a funny thing with one man plays where most of the time you get the actor right and the rest falls into place, and so it falls into place right in front of us. Rob plays the character as abrasive and sympathetic all at the same time. The angst, or rather the angst the character thinks he should feel, is acted with kindness and presented as the issues that we all struggled with growing up, that we can all relate to. The play couples emotive depth with plenty of laugh out loud moments, highlighting just how ludicrous being a teenager can be – one scene sees our gothic lead going to Starbucks and ordering a mint Frappucino for it is ‘the darkest of all the drinks offered’, then he can be seen sloping off happily to sip it on a gravestone.

Worth note also are the sound and lighting design that flawlessly works with the story to help bring various aspects to life, giving Nick shadows to fall back into when required or letting us hear what’s on his iPod when he listens to it. Never jarring or off time, these help to keep us in the moment during the play and suspend disbelief.

As I mentioned previously this play is a coming of age story and sees Nick the goth deal with a variety of life events that would make his beloved Nietzche stop and pause for thought – his coming out as gay, his feelings for his best friend, his friend’s feelings for him and ultimately that the concept of ‘life as futile’ when confronted with actual death doesn’t seem so accurate anymore.

The show that we saw was on an additional date set for the play after the immense success seen the last time that Stage Assault put this performance on in The Black Box, and it’s clear why. To get such a decent crowd on a Sunday night is no mean feat, word of mouth obviously worked its way round from the last time they visited and hopefully they’ll bring future productions back to the (at least for this play) appropriately named Black Box.