The dark web has perhaps never been as relevant as it currently is with the recent shocking events where it is no doubt often being used for this kind of activity. Stern Mystics takes the dark web and offers a fascinating collection of stories and characters to teach me more during this show about the dark web than I possibly wanted to know. You leave this show both wanting to go and see this vast place, over 90% of the internet in existence and also absolutely never wanting to go anywhere near it.
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| Chris Drew |
A Parkinsons' sufferer, a layabout with plans against his sister's partner and a neo-Nazi blogger are the three characters we follow during this play. The viewer and myself often unsure at first how each character is going to find themselves on the path to the dark web. The blogger is perhaps the most obvious, while I admit I did take some time to work out the Parkinsons timeline, as for the layabout. I genuinely didn't see that coming until much near the end. I blame that on my pure innocence of what is on the dark web.
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| Matt Kitson |
Each of the characters is tremendously well played by their respective performers. Chris Drew once again a remarkable presence on stage in his collection of characters. Of all the male performers in this year group, there is perhaps no better performer in creating individual, absorbing people and in
Click Here, he is allowed to play different ones within the same play and his strength is there to show at all times. The strongest, of course, is the recreation of the rightfully bitter and desperate Parkinsons sufferer, not only verbally brilliant but physically so as well with the cruel effect the disease saddles an individual with. He is quite remarkable at all times.
Matt Kitson's blogger is everything that you want a character that you despise at all times to be, vicious and cruel, but only through the safety of words, and hidden ones at that. His interviews are a little disconcerting as he appears so polite at all times and so relaxed in his rhetoric. While he epiphany is well played and developed at times, it somehow still feels a little obvious and I wonder really if someone really could change that much?
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| Tom Garland |
The path of the final character is the one that intrigues the most and Tom Garland is effective and convincing as the layabout without the philandering brother-in-law. Again it might take a little bit of swallowing that someone would contemplate the lengths he does to resolve the situation, but who knows how you would react. It certainly as I have already said offers the most expected path for me and therefore is interesting purely for this alone.
I really enjoyed
Click Here, so much more than many of the other Flash shows this year. It has brilliant characters, interesting stories and genuinely for myself, I learnt a heck of a lot of things from it, which is all no better recommendation that anything else as we learn better when we are being entertained by it. Now, what was that browser name again...?
Performance viewed: Friday, 26th May 2017
The Flash Festival 2017 ran between Monday 22nd and Saturday 27th May 2017 at three venues across the town.
