The Stage

Nocturnal

Published Thursday 23 April 2009 at 15:05 by Alistair Smith

Two men meet in a restaurant. The smaller of the two blackmails the other into becoming his friend. Unless the one does what the other says, he will be turned into the authorities as an illegal immigrant.

This is the premise with which Juan Mayorga launches his nightmarish study into human behaviour and interaction. We follow the two new-found ‘friends’ and eavesdrop on their dysfunctional relationships as if they were exhibits in a museum - the audience is sat looking into the boxed-up stage, as if peering through the window of an apartment block.

A literal translation of the work’s Spanish title would have rendered it as ‘Nocturnal Animals’, and in many ways, the author treats his characters as if they are animals in an urban zoo.

At times, the thrust of the piece can be unclear, but a deeply unsettling atmosphere of loneliness and desperation pervades - especially in the scenes between Paul Hunter’s Short Man (the blackmailer) and Justin Salinger’s Tall Man (the immigrant).

Hunter’s controlled and sinister performance brings the most out of Mayorga’s language, with its constant threatening subtext, and is a real highlight. As is the staging, which uses some quite exquisite projected animations by Matthew Walker to create the claustrophobic city backdrop and allows for numerous quick and convincing scene changes, while creating an environment which manages to feel both stylised and real.

Nocturnal has the meandering darkness of a bad dream and, like a dream, one leaves it with impressions of emotion and atmosphere, rather than anything more concrete or substantial.