(4 / 5)
 
Thursday 13th July 2017 Roundabout Pop up Theatre
Written by Brad Birch
Starring Hasan Dixon, Katie Elin-Salt and Sally Messham
Directed by awarding winning James Grieve Black Mountain is a disturbing physiological thriller that explores the darkest side of relationships. Set over a five day period, this one act play holds the audience in the middle of its white knuckle clenched palm. With a cast of three and brimming with expression the plays world premier was in  the grounds of Theatre Clwyd in Paines Plough, Roundabout Popup theatre. With a limited space, a couple of props namely a torch and (another item I shall not name for fear of ruining the plot) and extremely clever and well timed lighting, the focus was solely on the acting.  Thankfully the actors were all highly skilled and more than capable of delivering the multifaceted characterisations this play demanded.
 
I don’t want to give the plot away, as I think new stories are so few and far between in the theatre they should be cherished and discovered fresh by each audience. I will say from the get go the story had you guessing – why where they there ? What was their story ?  What was really going on ? The biggest question I had constantly going on however was – who’s side was I on? This type of dilemma I have a love hate relationship with. I admire writers who can produce characters who are so much more than the words on the page – and all three of these characters clearly are. We are never given the full story – just hints as to what has happened and with one word the characters / actors spoke volumes.  Speech was both passionate yet comic, weak yet strong, emotional yet pathetic – just as it is in everyday life .
The Roundabout pop up theatre is not a big space, although cleverly designed to seat a decent sized audience the actual stage space is small, fortunately for this play the close proximately to each other and the audience only added to heighten dramatic tension. I couldn’t help thinking how the play would work on a normal stage with props and staging I don’t think anything would be gained by setting the play differently, in fact I would suggest tension may be lost if the play had ran in a more naturalistic setting.
As it was, it certainly held jump out of your seat moments, if not jump out of your skin!

The Playwright Brad Birch

Well this dish had been well seasoned and cooked to a very high standard, my only reservation was the ending – without wanting to give anything away I would have been happier if there had been a final glimpse to just tie up the ending – a sprig of parsley –  just for clarification – but that does go against the grain of how the play ran – there was something along the vein of The Tales of The Unexpected about the story, you thought you knew what was coming, then you never, then you did, then what you thought half an hour earlier turned out to be right all along!
Overall this was a very enjoyable piece of theatre made all the more exciting by the fact it is being performed in a portable theatre that can literally be popped up at the road side if needed. (I support anything that involves theatre getting to the people or people getting to the theatre).
Black Mountain will be showing at Theatr Clwyd, Mold until 21st July and after then it will be touring various venues including Edinburgh Fringe before concluding at the Orange Tree Theatre in March 2018.
https://www.painesplough.com/play/black-mountain
For anyone who likes their drama with  a twist and sting in the tale this is a definite!