The Ice at the End of the World – Omnibus Theatre, London

Writer: Katy Schutte

Director: Madelaine Moore

There is little more claustrophobic than being trapped in a wilderness, unable to escape a group of strangers. In Katy Schutte’s The Ice at the End of World, that’s where Alys (Eleanor Dillon-Reams) finds herself: on a ship sailing from the city of Tromsø in northern Norway to the remote community of Svalbard, deep within the Arctic Circle.

A translator of poetry, she has unwillingly been sent by her publisher to experience the sea ice and other natural habitats written about by the poet she is translating. But while she is on the ship reluctantly, her cabin mates are more enthused. A small group of artists seeking to use the experience to deepen their connection to their work, they are led by the surly and practical Laura (Judith Amsenga), an experienced guide who has a sideline in cryptozoology, being fascinated by legends of mermaids, selfies and other nautical mythologies.

As the ship slowly progresses northwards, hampered by inclement weather, Alys’s frustrations with her surroundings grow. So, too, do the atmospherics: Megan Lucas’s lighting and Russell Ditchfield’s sound design combine to suggest a world that is not only detached from the hustle and bustle of Alys’s London life but may shift between our reality and an altogether different plane.

The other artists on the voyage, Schutte’s annoyingly perky, ukulele-strumming musician Wonder and Gian Carlo Ferrini’s lecherous sketch artist, seem to exist mainly to annoy Alys – both in their insistence on encroaching upon her personal space and in actually engaging with their journey. Only when Alys and Laura start flirting with each other does the former start to relax.

But in any horror story, any moment of relaxation tends to be a precursor to tragedy. So it is here, and while the confines of a fringe theatre stage preclude literal representations of the voyagers’ fates, the use of dance and physical movement contributes much to the surreal, supernatural elements at play.

Working against the show somewhat is the lack of depth given to Schutte and Ferrini’s characters. Even Dillon-Reams, the putative focus of the play, rarely gets the chance to explore the true inner workings of Alys’s thought processes, the character being a reactive participant and reluctant observer throughout. More interesting is Amsenga’s Dutch guide, a woman whose motives and motivations remain intriguingly ambiguous.

Except for a brief prelude scene in an art gallery that adds little to the piece as a whole other than to reduce expectations from the off, The Ice at the End of the World is an intriguing, often engaging, moody slice of horror theatre. While it may never quite convince in its attempt to bring the ice-bound wilderness of the Arctic Circle to a corner of Clapham Common, it does possess sufficient spookiness to sometimes chill the blood.

Continues until 12 October 2024