The Dark Side of Love - Camden Roundhouse

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Pictured above: The Dark Side of Love at Camden Roundhouse

The Dark Side of Love – Review

What a beautiful show. Throbbing in the bowels of Camden’s Roundhouse, The Dark Side of Love is a feverish, immersive performance that reminds you to love as if your life depended on it – even if in the end your heart is nothing more than a gross lump of meat floating in a jar.

Devised by its London and Brazilian teenage cast, and directed by Renato Rocha, an artist with Brazilian theatre company Companhia Bufomecânica – The Dark Side of Love explores how love in Shakespeare’s plays is as often a curse as a blessing - leaving lovers broken and bruised, yet still hungry for more. Co-produced by LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre) and Royal Shakespeare Company, The Dark Side of Love clearly has high class backing, yet still feels raw and free.

The Dark Side of Love at Camden Roundhouse will remind you to love as if your life depended on it - even if in the end your heart is nothing more than a gross lump of meat floating in a jar...

The Dark Side of Love at Camden Roundhouse.

The womb-like Dorfman Hub theatre space first forms as a peep-show promenade. As a nervous, giggling audience, we are first led through a long dark corridor towards a flickering light. What a minute – is that a bloodstained boy walking on the walls? Where are the ropes holding him up?

The Dark Side of Love: a bloodstained boy walking on the walls! Where are the ropes holding him up?

We are left alone and free to wander as we wish, peering down yet more corridors which offer us a glimpse into different scenes of heartache. The cramped, windowless environment, figures flitting in the dark and eerie murmers broken by desolate cries pitch us straight into the claustrophobic mind of the heartbroken teenager. This is acting up close, and demands great courage - the young cast deliver with a vulnerability and conviction which will only become more compelling as their confidence grows.

The second part of the performance unfolds in the central performance space, with the actors rescued from their corridor cells and working together to create short scenes, vignettes and images. And oh yes, there’s Shakespeare in here somewhere – but the text is more or less abandoned – rather the plays have been cracked open and the raw emotion scooped out. To be honest, when the Shakespearean text is heard, it can feel archaic and even out of place alongside the words and lyrics devised by the actors themselves.

Yet it’s not a miserable experience – there is so much to see, so much to explore in this inventive performance that the atmosphere is excited and compassionate rather than morose.

The Dark Side of Love runs at various times between 4pm and 8.30pm until 6th July 2012. Tickets are £12.50 and you can even grab a taste of the action below before you go.