@ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, on Wed 18 May 2016 (and touring)
The stage is set – a simple square white stage with five microphones ready to project the stories of the five actors of New Room Theatre who will tell real life tales of struggles with alcoholism. The set doesn’t need much more – the stories talk for themselves.
It is dark subject matter, but the opening anecdotes are disturbingly funny as the audience hears about one woman who has an obsession with peeing off tall buildings, a young man whose night went so badly wrong he “cooked” his own jeans in an oven before burning a hole in a stranger’s kitchen linoleum and the woman whose go-to album after every night out is The Carpenters.
But, just as the comedy level and the music beats reach a crescendo, the production takes a dark twist and the tragic side of alcohol addiction is revealed. The audience shift uncomfortably in their seats as the five actors: Camille Marmié, Ben Clifford, Mark Jeary, Miriam Sarah Doran and Beth Kovarik, along with a voiceover from Karen Bartke, explore issues such as rape, child abuse, broken bones and suicide attempts, all brought on by addiction to alcohol.
The scripting by Mark Jeary, who also performs in the play, is raw yet fluid, each monologue overlapping with the next seamlessly as feelings are shared, experiences intertwine and the recovery process is repeated for each member of the rehabilitation group. Jeary himself is in recovery from addiction and has drawn on these experiences to give a real and unshowy journey through a terrible affliction.
The experiences are real and it is testament to the performers that they need no more than a microphone to get the tales across. There are no fancy costumes, no complicated movements, no fancy sets and yet, the audience can not tear their eyes from the performances, gripped by the compelling, yet tragic, stories and gunning for them all to make it through the twelve-step recovery process, piloted by Castle Craig back in 1988 when it opened as Scotland’s first twelve-step treatment centre.
It is dark and it is disturbing but Blackout is an important lesson in the tragedy of alcoholism.