THEATRE REVIEW: The Dark Carnival

It’s the question everyone asks in life, and no one has the answer to. What really happens when you die? Is there a heaven and hell, and how is it you qualify for one or the other? Do we go through an entire lifetime of achievement, disappointment, love and loss just to end up six feet under in eternal nothingness? Let’s hope not. Rather perhaps when we die, we just…keep going. Albeit beneath the earth and imperceptible to the living, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be a party. The Dark Carnival argues exactly this as it suggests if when we die heaven happens to have no vacancies, and one finds oneself stuck in between, make the most of it. With live music, singing and an inebriated, angel of God, theatre company Vanishing Point brings a piece of theatre that may draw you to think that the idea of dying isn’t so bad after all.

The Dark Carnival depicts two worlds on Earth. Above the ground the living try relentlessly to reach the dead, whether it be an old man visiting a gravestone every day to be close to his lover, or a boy striving for internet fame through communicating with those that have passed on using a TV satellite. Out of this a rather bleak picture is painted of life with the living. Below the ground is a different story. The play’s narrator takes the audience through the lessons of coming to terms with their recent case of death. Joining her are the recently and long time deceased alike. Among them a jazz band, Mrs Mark, a woman that for lack of a better word can only be described as lively, and the young pained boy who’s now elderly lover visits him every day. While these individuals are faced with the struggles of being in limbo as a result of heaven permanently closed, this is no reason to give up on the afterlife. With whisky in hand and instruments at the ready, the group act on the unjust as heaven’s angels now resign to drinking and smoking while observing the helpless dead that grow ever larger in number below.

While having a live band on stage as part of a cast is nothing new, it’s always welcome with an audience and certainly this band were welcomed with open arms into Traverse 1 as they performed live with an array of instruments these jazz sounding numbers that gave the play its vivacity. In between the music the writing sways too often from endearing to lacking in energy as more than one joke goes by unnoticed. It feels perhaps the story could do without some of its main characters and in fact its main plotline & simply remain with the premise of the characters talking & singing the audience through the rules and coping mechanisms of living with death. Despite this, Traverse 1 has rarely been used so well visually speaking. The set divides the above and below literally with coffins piling up to the cemetery that casts over them. The cast jump from coffin to coffin and above and below throughout, playing with the levels they’ve created from the remarkable set. As well as this, along with the music some enchanting imagery is displayed with the use of silhouettes that is aesthetically striking. Vanishing Point have ultimately created in this piece an entertaining night of live music and some remarkable visuals and set design. A wavering story told through both song and spoken word that despite its short fallings looks good and musically sounds great.