Writer: Jack Brownridge Kelly
Director: Roisin McCay-Hines
Sooner or later, a man was going to write a play about a shed. Jack Brownridge Kelly’s play Cold, Dark Matters which comes to the Hope Theatre after a brief tour of its native Cornwall, makes that shed a place of mystery; dank and unused, it becomes the setting for a tale about community politics, ownership and fitting in, with the shed itself central to the unfolding action. Focusing on the act of storytelling itself, Brownridge Kelly conjures the isolation and customs of the Cornish village nicely but struggles to give his play the sendoff it deserves.
Actor Jack is thrilled to be at the Hope Theatre, here to provide a morality tale about a man named Colin who moves to a rural village and befriends the locals. Keen to make his mark, Colin becomes intrigued by a tumbling shed that he wants to fix up and use for allotments, but farmer Jago and head of the local book club try to warn him off. When Colin and Jago enjoy an unexpected drunken night, the consequences change Colin forever.
Cold, Dark Matters has a strong narrative and it is clear from the performance that Brownridge Kelly has a novelist’s eye for detail, conjuring place and character with an engaging clarity, helping to immerse the audience in the unfolding events and Colin’s perspective. There is a detective mystery quality to the writing, like Watson narrating a Sherlock Holmes adventure, that builds suspense as the protagonist encounters friendly but sinister folk who are equally suspicious of the new arrival, giving this 60-minute show lots of avenues for development.
Scenario creation and narrative style are, in the end, far stronger than what Brownridge Kelly eventually does with it, generating a potentially interesting crime strand but failing to resolve it. The audience never finds out who was involved, why they were there or how Colin’s story truly ends, and despite a last-minute conceit in which Jack offers up a ‘surprise’ ending, it adds more questions than answers. What was going on in this village, has Colin been led astray or innocently used as a patsy and does the ending imply a supernatural, or even devilish influence? Cold, Dark Matters needs a little more time to decide what it wants its outcome to be.
As a performer, Brownridge Kelly is an engaging storyteller whether as Jack or Colin, inhabiting a couple of other comedy villager characters that are distinctly drawn vocally and physically which makes you wish to meet further members of this community to better understand their reaction to Colin. The actor engages with the audience and the small Hope Theatre space, directed by Roisin McCay-Hines, and the tale itself becomes often gripping.
There is much more to say about the relationship between Jack and Colin; how do they know each other and what has given Jack the confidence to appropriate and perform this story? The significance of the Cold, Dark Matters at the centre of the plot needs to be teased out for longer in order to send the audience home chilled by the impact and wondering what happened next.
Runs until 23 March 2024
