As the evenings draw in, and Hallowe’en looms, we all want something a little bit sinister for our entertainment. Oxford’s Creation Theatre often brings us a spooky play in Autumn, and this year, they’ve chosen a tale from the classic horror archives, with a version of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum.

Poe’s story is of a man entrapped in a dark cell by his enemies. Tormented by the complete blackness of the cell, he decides to measure it out in paces to allow him some knowledge of his surroundings. He discovers the dimensions of the place, only to fall at the edge of a pit in the floor, which seems to be tremendously deep, and which rouses in him a terror that there are unseen pits everywhere in the cell. Eventually he sleeps, but when he awakes, although the room is now bright enough to see, he is bound to a low bed, above which a pendulum swings back and forth, ever moving lower. On this pendulum is a scythe, aimed at his heart. At the very last moment, the man is able to escape his bonds, but he realises that his freedom will be short-lived, as the walls begin to close in. He realises that the only way he can beat his tormentors is to take his fate into his own hands and to jump into the pit – death on his own terms and not theirs.

The story is a short but horrifying one – full of claustrophobia, isolation, and desperation. Creation’s interpretation of the tale is a fascinating take, where the main character is a young Iranian woman, played by Afsaneh Dehrouyeh, who has dared to speak out against the use of the hijab as a symbol of oppression instead of what it ought to be – a symbol of faith. She rails against her solitary confinement, and as the darkness and silence begin to drive her mad, she seems to be haunted by Edgar Allan Poe’s voice, reciting passages from his own narrative to describe her plight.

The theatre company has chosen to highlight the isolation of the narrative by performing the play in near darkness, with only flashes of light to highlight key scenes. The audience members are given earphones through which to listen to the performance, which gives a solitary feeling to the viewing experience. A projector on the wall shows snippets of the woman’s memories of her life before the imprisonment, although I think the play wouldn’t suffer much if this element was removed.

If you want to be challenged and spooked by a piece of short theatre that will stay with you long after the dedicated hour, then do see The Pit and the Pendulum in Oxford this week or in Clapham in the coming weeks. This is my favourite offering from Creation Theatre in a while.

★★★★☆   @BookingAround    29^th October 2018