Fourth Monkey's Genesis and Revelation: Sodom

Fourth Monkey returns to The Space this year with its customary thematically-linked season of plays, performed by students of its alternative-to-drama-school programme. The premise this time around is the books of Genesis and Revelation, and in Sodom the cast gamely get stuck into the fire and brimstone of the Old Testament, grimly mashing up the biblical with the contemporary via a hint of Greek tragedy.

A blind chorus comments on the action as Lot’s daughters, imprisoned at home to shield them from God's wrath, look out at the horrors of Sodom’s destruction though the windows of their gilded cage. Fourth Monkey always showcases some bright young talent amidst its sizeable casts, and Marc Benga is particularly charismatic as Lot, whilst Heather MacInnes as his daughter offers real emotional vulnerability. The cast’s enjoyment of the ensemble work is often a real pleasure to watch.   

But the direction is frustratingly one-note – the chorus, speaking invariably in unison, hiss and shriek hysterically throughout, offering little space to reflect on the drama as it unfolds. The design—a brashly stitched together backdrop of rocks and molten lava—conspires with these London Dungeon-style histrionics to overpower what is occasionally quite an evocative, lyrical script. It’s a striking effect, but even after a couple of minutes you can’t help thinking—for the sake of the performers as much as the audience—that the show would benefit from pulling back and switching up the tone.