Part of the Sprint Festival 2016, Don’t Turn the Lights On is a devised piece on teenager Alex’s struggle with gender identity. Its topical subject matter, was dealt with both sensitively and originally in a performance that was utterly gripping throughout.

The two cast members, Mira Yonder and Jay Walker worked excellently as a pair, creating a dual perspective of the character of ‘Alex’. Using only a handful of props, a blindfold, school ties, rope, red high heels, the two were able to intelligently convey a fragmented vision of Alex’s struggle in school, especially with regards to using school toilets. Devised in conjunction with director Dadiow Lin, the duo play an elaborate, and amusing, game of ‘Blind Man’s Bluff’ (in which they located pieces of paper they’d each written on one another’s bodies) for the greater part of the piece’s 60 minute run. Not only was I incredibly impressed at both actors’ ability to run in heels, the game gradually grew more intimate as the paper was put in more difficult places upon their persons. With this growing intimacy I noticed a real closeness and connection between the actors, who together represented ‘Alex’. Whilst I confess that until the last ten minutes I didn’t quite understand what was going on, I was nonetheless captivated in my uncertainty.

Audience involvement was another key element to the performance – in an ingenious way that I had never seen before. Between rounds of ‘Blind Man’s Bluff’, Yonder and Walker would take it in turns to pick out audience members, look at them, and write their thoughts on that audience member (e.g. “Man in second row to the left: you remind me of my father – in a bad way”). Reading these all out after the finishing of ‘Blind Man’s Bluff’, was not only entertaining (“Girl on front row you look really bored”), but a powerful reminder of how we as a society are constantly observing/being observed by others, and how we are all performing constantly in our day to day lives – an excellent creative idea that truly was eye opening.

Though small, the performance space was used in visionary ways to maximise the piece’s poignancy. Foregoing stage lights, the play lived up to its namesake by using a series of lamps placed about the space, which were switched on and off as Yonder and Walker moved about. No two lights were ever on at the same time, leaving much of the stage in a dark space – creating a sharp metaphor of people hiding from their ‘true’ identity. Voice was another key element to the performance: recordings of Yonder and Walker repeating their lines which built upon the intense atmosphere already formed by the set and the actors.

The play’s ending tied together all loose ends, the actors speaking in unison as we as an audience realize fully what we have been watching. Thought provoking, and insightful; this piece was truly a joy to watch – my commendations to Lin, Yonder and Walker.

 

Don’t Turn The Lights On played at Camden People’s Theatre on 15 March. For more information see Camden People’s Theatre website.