Blackout

 

Ready for something intense? Lights out, lets go.
James, fifteen, wakes up in a jail cell charged with attempted murder. He has no recollection of what happened and the police aren't willing to jog his memory yet, but set to throbbing music, intense visuals and Neil Bettles fast-paced synthesis of stage direction, dance, mime and fight choreography we are about to find out.

James' mum, victim of domestic abuse, has given up on her life and wants more for her son. Beaten up until he toughens up, he dons skinhead, bomber jacket and Doc boots to school until one day he flips and is sent home. One night he’s wandering the streets with pals of pals who give him a drink of vodka spiked with ecstasy and valium and he does something he’ll regret for the rest of his life.

Thickskin Ltd, with some stirring performances from a youthful cast, fearlessly captures both the terror and exhilaration associated with turning inner anguish outwards, culminating in violent eruption. Based on conversations and interviews discussing the lives of real people, verbatim theatre continues to surge in popularity since the success of Black Watch. It’s an indication that the theatre is not just a place for fantastical escape.

Amongst theatre-goers are people longing for something packing insight into what fortifies the personality of another and makes them into who they are. At its worst, verbatim theatre scrambles desperately (failing) to turn real life dramas into some kind of art-form, but in the case of Blackout it finds a home as a compassionate look into Glasgow slum life and its consequences on the psyche of the young who are powerless to escape it. A piercing tale of soul-loss and eventual redemption.