Ghost stories are never what they seem, or at least they should not be. As Henry James taught us with his The Turn of the Screw, any self-respecting ghost story should know how to play with the appearance of things, with the ambiguity underlying reality itself, with the perception of the reader or, in our case, of the spectator, and create, through allusions and linguistic traps, a labyrinthine reality, phantasmagorical in fact, a game of reflexes where everything can be the opposite of everything.
This is what Crossing the Void succeeds in achieving, to the viewer’s great satisfaction, as a result of young scriptwriter Sally MacAlister’s collaboration with queer actresses’ koi collective in their debut as a theatre company. A student of Drama Writing at the University of Manchester, MacAlister proves to be a mature and self-aware writer, not only expert in gender conventions with which she plays skilfully, but in the portrayal of living, real and imperfect women. The plot revolves around two strong themes, a séance on the one hand, and the sentimental and human growth of four young women grappling with the incomprehensible loss of their young friend who died by suicide a year earlier.
How to cope with trauma, loss, something that cannot be fully understood, the so-called ghosts of the past? These are the questions at the centre of the story, which unravels through unexpected and not at all predictable plot twists. In just 70 minutes, the play manages to give a glimpse of an all-female world, investigating issues such as mental health, depression and suicide through authentic and irreverent dialogues that alternate comedy and lightness, anxiety and terror. In what turns out to be an increasingly anxiety-inducing whirlwind of emotions, the viewers find themselves solving a puzzle they didn’t even know he had in their hands, while Grace Baker’s witty direction gives that twist to the narrative, making it even more creepy and suspenseful.
The use of video clips played on a monitor, which fit perfectly into the narration by amplifying it, proves to be an effective and skilful choice in alluding to something beyond, suspended, an intimate and personal dimension that casts a shadow over the present moment of the narration, that of a ‘banal’ séance between friends.
Friends, enemies, at times strangers, women who are completely different from each other, they are strongly characterised by a natural and lively acting by the four very young actresses who naturally recreate the world of today’s adolescents, of the disagreements, jealousies, insecurities and secrets with which every young girl can identify. Standing out among them in particular are Amelia Fleur Yayici, who plays Finn, and Zara Louise Kennedy, who plays Lorna, two antithetical but essential characters in the development of the story. While Finn offers much-needed comic relief to break the dramatic tension, the character of Lorna, the outsider of the group, proves to be sweetly spooky and unintentionally hilarious, the catalyst for all the dramatic tension.
A successful collaboration, that of these young women, who, although only at their first experiences, prove themselves masters of their story and of the skills necessary to tell it.
Playing until 26th August, check dates, times and buy tickets HERE.
Reviewer: Anna Chiari
Reviewed: 10th August 2022
North West End UK Rating: ★★★★