Upstaged rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Reviewer: Daniel Shipman
Theatre company fix+foxy arrive at Aviva Studios with Dark Noon, a dark, critical, but at times humorous exploration of the most American of myths – the Wild West. This production captures the violent, free-for-all nature of life on the frontier, and demonstrates the inherent injustice in colonial violence without ever coming across as preachy.
As you’d expect from a piece dealing with such brutal source material, there is a huge amount of violence and savagery here. This is necessary to challenge the established narrative of savage natives and civilised white settlers, but it is never played for shock value. Instead, the matter-of-fact presentation renders the violence all the more shocking, especially when the cast drag clueless and innocent audience members on stage to experience the brutality.
Tue Biering’s direction imbues the text with changes in tone that are so fast and frequent that they will give you whiplash, but they’re masterfully handled. Biering achieves an incredible amount with a cast of only seven performers. They flit between roles frequently, often dragging audience members onto the stage to bolster their number. This could so easily become gimmicky or awkward, but the balance of care and discomfort is perfectly achieved. This technique comes into its own as it communicates the horror and vulnerability of those on the receiving end of the violence inherent in the Wild West.
The production has a constant, live-filmed backdrop that calls to mind the conscious framing of historical narratives while also focusing the audience’s attention on an increasingly busy thrust stage. This makes it difficult, if not impossible to look away from the most difficult content – Dark Noon is not for the faint-hearted.
You’ll spend two hours not quite knowing what you’ve just seen or where to look next, but Dark Noon will likely be one of the most impressive yet challenging things you’ll ever see on a stage.
– Daniel Shipman
Dark Noon runs at Factory International’s Aviva Studios until Sunday 10 March.