Horror is a tricky genre to pull off in the theatre. For audiences used to the broader range of special effects and distances in perspective available in the medium of film, it can be harder to create a genuine sense of terror with actors on stage at a fixed distance. Lighting, sound, set and performance can of course create that feeling of dread, but it’s all too easy for it to tip over into camp – by design or by accident.
For much of its run time, The Tell Tale Heart (which is very, very loosely based on a short story by Edgar Allen Poe) doesn’t do a bad job of instilling a sense of unease and foreboding of what’s to come. This is despite the story being constructed on some true cliches of the genre. We have the naïve out of towner, the dark and stormy night, the remote, creepy house with the strange, taciturn owner, and a few not-so-subtle indications that all is not as it should be (why does said owner have quite so many suitcases and chests littering his hallways – and could this be connected to his habit of taking in lodgers and the oddly-named local inn, the Vanishing Arms?).
It’s engaging enough though, largely down to the committed performances of the two leads. David Martin makes for a likeably awkward Clarry Straven, the luckless solicitor’s clerk who gets more than he bargained for on an out-of-town work assignment. Martin works hard selling Straven’s gradual transition from nervous unease to paranoid terror, though the act of sudden violence that closes the first act maybe doesn’t quite land. He is also landed with a lot of the sometimes-clunky expositional phrases that litter John Goodrum’s script (which could perhaps use some judicial pruning), but largely handles them well enough.
Goodrum is clearly the driving force behind this production, as he is also credited with the set design as well as playing Straven’s host, the unsettling and odd Roderick Bounty. As Bounty, he is a powerful stage presence, with a slow and deliberate delivery that plays well against Martin’s nervous babbling. If he’s occasionally guilty of overplaying Bounty’s strangeness, it can be forgiven as the show as a whole teeters on the boundary between serious and camp for its whole run. It can sometimes feel as though director Karen Henson wasn’t sure which of these she wanted to aim for, though in the second half it’s fairly definitely answered in favour of the latter. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – and the audience laps it up – but perhaps leaning more that way in the first half too would make for more tonal consistency.
The set largely consists of two beds, a clutter of suitcases, a table and a doorframe – the latter a bit jarringly set at a crazy angle – backed by an abstract arrangement of drapes. It’s here that the limits of a touring production are most clear – as designer, Goodrum has done his best but it can’t help but look a little lost in the vast space of the Theatre Royal stage. David Gilbrook’s sound design is exactly what you’d expect, with plenty of ominous thunder and howling wind, and of course the titular heart, about which best not to give spoilers. It’s fun and effective.
This is a small company (only four names are credited in the programme) and they deserve a lot of credit for bringing a well-crafted and enjoyable production to the stage. Don’t expect to be terrified, but go in the right spirit and The Tell Tale Heart delivers a fun and campy ride – and there’s a lot to be said for that.
