Heart of Darkness: 10 Feet Tall

Heart of Darkness, inspired by Joseph Conrad’s 1902 novella is an oppressive, claustrophobic drama, that takes its audience to the very brink of madness.

The drama, produced by Give it a Name, and performed at 10 Feet Tall, Cardiff, recounts the journey of Marlow, an English ferry boat captain up the Congo River. As Marlow penetrates deeper and deeper into the heart of Africa, so too, the savagery and insanity intensify. The production, directed by James Williams, and starring John Norton, Dean Rehman and Sule Rimi, sees Marlow’s behaviour becoming more and more erratic and unstable, as he takes his own personal journey across the Styx into the underworld.

Heart of Darkness was an effective piece of drama due to its unusual use of location, staged as it was in a performance space above a bar. Every nook and cranny of available space was used, as the audience was ushered from one room, and one scene to the next. This constant movement, and the inability to settle in one place, created an added unease and restlessness. Furthermore, the use of the stark, steel staircase as a location was convincing, giving the actor room to run wild; swinging, leaping and balancing precariously, whilst Marlow was recounting his childhood. However, when Marlow was at the bottom of the stairwell, and the audience peering down from their elevated position, the use of location was not wholly appropriate or successful due to the lack of clarity, although it was an interesting experiment in the use of differing viewpoints.

The play attempted, rather successfully, to put the audience inside Marlow’s mind. As Marlow’s madness increased so too did the feeling that we, the audience, were being strained and tested: by the progressively unsettling din created by all three actors, by their increasingly unexplainable and unhinged behaviour, and by the disturbing sounds and smoke filling the claustrophobic cellar space. Not only were we in the mind of Marlow, but by sharing his experiences, we were Marlow, experiencing our own momentary descent into madness. However, the use of the cold, emotionless ushers, constantly moving the audience and the action, ensured our position as outsiders. We, as an audience were privy to a man losing his mind, and seeking entertainment from such a spectacle. This juxtaposition between the audience as outsiders and the audience as an actual part of the performance only added to the discomfort.

The ending of the play was rather too long, as one crescendo after another came and went, and the suspense and tension built up throughout the production was gradually lost. With a little less self-indulgence, and a little more restraint, the play could have been brought to a tighter, tenser, and far more powerful conclusion. Nevertheless, the production succeeded in re-creating Marlow’s madness, and keeping the audience afraid, uncomfortable, and on edge throughout.