REVIEW: Cold, Dark Matters at The Hope 12 – 23 March 2024

'a show that delights in storytelling tools and Russian-doll trickery‘ ★★★★

Cold, Dark Matters is the work of Jack Brownbridge-Kelly, an actor-writer playing an actor called Jack who is playing a writer called Colin. Got it? You will. This is a show that delights in storytelling tools and the Russian-doll trickery of nesting narrative framework within framework, breaking a fourth wall in one moment in order to pull the rug out from under the audience in another. It is a testament to Brownbridge-Kelly’s skill and his director’s astuteness that the result is not tedious and confusing, but rather easy and playful. Cold, Dark Matters dances in and out of its narrative levels to spin a story that spirals relentlessly towards the gruesome, without losing its sense of mischievous fun along the way.

The plot? When a man moves to an isolated Cornish village, his obsession with a crumbling shed on a lonely hillside leads him into peril.

This man, like Brownbridge-Kelly, is an author, but the kind embarrassed by his claim to fame, a raunchy series about “a woman who talks a lot with a Celtic stone who turns out to be King Arthur”. His work seems to have found a 50-Shades-like ardent following in the community he calls his new home, and draws matron Ethel to his door. Local old man Jago, too, seeks him out, for different and increasingly suspect reasons. Brownbridge-Kelly deftly distinguishes between these characters and more, and director Roisin McCay-Hines keeps the one-man-duologues flowing. Audience address punctuates the dialogue, and is often surprisingly poignant. You’ll recognise this nocturne, the performer tells us—and we do. Colin’s not an idiot, he breaks a scene off to explain—and we feel worse for the man when the scene resumes.

McCay-Hines has also meshed light and sound beautifully with Lucy Read’s evocative set, a translation of the Cornelia Parker art installation that inspired the play and gave it its name. The result is a child’s mobile of dangling splinters—a dilapidated window and broken wood loom across the space and provide a fitting focus for fixation. The production knows when to lean into imagery and music, and when to pull back and let the words alone carry the scene.

I’m not surprised that Cold, Dark Matters successfully toured Cornwall before reaching The Hope: It has a lot to say about loneliness, and vanishing communities, in the region in which it’s set. But a London audience, too, will find plenty to dive into here.

If you like your wit macabre, and your endings unpredictable, this one’s for you.

Box Office https://www.thehopetheatre.com/productions/cold-dark-matters/

Writer & Performer: Jack Brownbridge-Kelly

Director: Roisin McCay-Hines

Stage Manager: Kate Tregear

Set Designer: Lucy Read

Publicity Image. Hugo Winder-Lind

Reviewed by Anna Clart