A young woman is alone, cleaning out her late grandmother’s
basement. Immersed in the flotsam and jetsam of furniture, nick nacks and tapes
she left behind, the woman hears a recording that exposes a family secret.
The Basement Tapes
is the work of New Zealand theatre makers, Chapel Perilous. Together they have
developed a piece that swerves between moving and terrifying; this is the sadness
and horror of grief.
It’s so rare for theatre to trade in dread or to effectively
deploy jump scares. The Basement Tapes
has both, trepidation seeping through every moment the main character seems
trapped by the past.
There’s some beautiful humour weaved in through the script
and in Stella Reid’s full-bodied performance. Reid is physical – we see her
dance in defiance several times – and moving – frantic to get her mother on the
phone or desperately trying to get the pizza guy to stay.
Director Jane Yonge has found a shape to this personal
mystery that is both thrilling and sad. Lighting and sound design is effectively
deployed as the show sometimes gives way to the haunting voice of the
grandmother; the audience alone in the dark, listening to a tale as evocative
as the one the granddaughter inhabits.
The Basement Tapes
will leave you with a knot in your stomach, from fear and from loss; two
threads in the same cloth.
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