Writers and Directors: Lorenzo Fantini, Kai Hastur
Who hasn’t wondered what lies beyond the limits of our own senses? The breadth of experiences and knowledge available to those who have the power, and courage, to go beyond?
H.P. Lovecraft certainly did. In this play, an original creation, heavily inspired by Lovecraft’s work, we see these ideas in a pure form. It’s 1936, Arthur is so deep into his psychic research even his esoteric society members deem him too extreme for them and they cut him off. He’s investigating a reliquary in secret, a task given to him out of pity by his friend Henry, one of the more respected members of the society, who has waning faith in Arthur’s ability to open the box and uncover its secrets.
However, Arthur cracks the box’s code and discovers within it a girl who was entombed there over 25 years ago. She’s the key, it seems, to the world beyond the veil – to the world separated from our own experiences and accessed through Charon, one of Pluto’s undiscovered moons.
Bombastic language, grandiosity and delightful earnestness are the calling cards of this entertaining genre piece. However, it lags, as many pulpy stories of mysterious esotericism do, under its own weight. It labours the point, and moves on erratically. The coda is overlong as well. With so many references to occultist beliefs and happenings, it’s tough to wade through.
More interesting are the links it makes to the real world – the thoughts carried by the narrative of supernatural obsession. It’s 1936, remember? The play opens on the morning after The Battle of Cable Street, and Arthur is revealed as a selfish, intellectually immature sympathiser with Oswald Mosely and his fascistic Berlin friends. The myth of the Nazi Superman, and that demented group’s search for the supernatural clearly plays an inspirational role for Arthur. The folly of this selfish search for something else is highlighted smartly, and his sticky end shows just what you get if you seek knowledge without heed to collateral damage. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
As Arthur, writer Kai Hastur has highs and lows – not quite shining as the confident astral explorer, but great as the mean spirited and selfish man whose weaknesses are laid bare. In these moments of revelation he presents a compelling vision. As Rhiannon, the woman damaged from her quarter-century of journey through a nightmarish universal graveyard, Grace Hendy delivers well. Scared, unhinged at times, and fractious, she’s a strong pillar upon which Arthur can crash himself.
It’s not for everyone, but if you’re going to the London Lovecraft Festival, you’re likely familiar with the tropes and mores of the genre. It delivers on the promise made to existing fans of the writer but for a newcomer there are going to be better ways to get into his work and this type of material.
Reviewed on 16 February 2023
