The new play, Medium, was developed by The Lantern Theatre which has now been awarded Arts Council funding for a short tour, following a successful, 5*** run at Brighton Fringe in May this year. It is a great achievement for a Brighton organisation which has continued to teach, support and encourage theatre talent for decades in the city.
The playwright, Isaac Freeman, was inspired by a found, anonymous memoir discovered during the renovation of an old Victorian house in London. The writer confessed that he had been a fraudulent spiritualist and medium. This was part of the ongoing work of ACT, its encouragement of new writers and development of their work.
In 1875, two of London’s favourite spiritualist Mediums are waiting for a Séance to begin but not everything is as it appears to be – at least to one of them. Who is really pulling the strings? And what exactly is it that is haunting them?
Isaac’s imagination was fired by this scenario, and he created a world where the lines between coercive control and free will are blurred, where illusion and reality merge and where the gullible are ensnared by the cynical.
By setting these issues in the patriarchal, colonial past, their continuing presence in society is thrown into sharper focus. The coercive control depicted is not gender specific – the male antagonist bullies another man, a naïve and lonely widower from Brighton.
This victim, in turn, dares to raise concerns about his young fiancée being subjected to sexual assault by another Medium within the ‘Society’, who insists it was ‘the spirits who touched’ her.
On arriving in the theatre space there is a strong atmosphere of foreboding and intimacy waiting for this chilling, gothic tale of subterfuge created by the dark walls and spare setting. This was skilfully designed and directed by Janette Eddisford, the Principal of the Academy of Creative Training, who has worked extensively as an actor and director since the early 1980s.
Medium is a haunting exploration of power, belief and deceit — where the true ghosts may be those of guilt and control. We are introduced at the outset to Thompson (Luke O’Dell) and Campbell (Dominic Hart). During the ensuing action, hitting the perfect note of modern, Victorian melodrama where we discover that a séance is to be held. What then unravels is that Thompson and Campbell are fake mediums. When The Man (Daniel Finlay) and Madeleine Brooks (Bek MacGeekie) are drawn into the toxic circle matters become darker and considerably threatening.
Luke O’Dell is an imposing Thompson whose height is such that he nearly brushes the ceiling of the performance space. He ably creates the tension within a man who knows that his professional reputation is on the line and is unravelling. My only criticism is that, in anger, his delivery is too loud in such a small space.
Dominic Hart’s Campbell is smoothly played as, initially, the more controlled and practical of the two fraudsters with a clear view of what needs to be done. His portrayal of a man gradually falling apart under control of the monstrous Thompson is perfectly placed.
Beth MacGeekie’s Madeleine Brooks captures the youth and enthusiasm of a girl which dissolves into fear when faced with manipulation of her idol.
