Horsham show navigates a none-too-distant apocalypse

Theatre 48 return to Horsham’s Capitol Theatre with You Stupid Darkness!

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely to

00:06speak again to Alex. Now Alex, from Theatre 48, coming up in Horsham with a really interesting

00:11sounding production with a fabulous title, You Stupid Darkness. Explain that title, it's

00:18intriguing.

00:19So the title, it comes from a Charlie Brown comic, and the reference is explained in the

00:27final scene of the play, as it's included in... One of the main characters is obsessed

00:32with comics and cartoons, so it features on his lunchbox, and he explains the quote and

00:38explains the title of the show. Yes, so when you get to the last scene, it will become

00:43clear.

00:44And the play is something different for the company, isn't it? What's the attraction of

00:47this play, and what was the scene, what's it about?

00:50It's a total departure for us. It's a very modern, very darkly funny play about four

00:59people who work in a Samaritan-style office in the not-too-distant future during some

01:06kind of global warming crisis or apocalypse of some kind. It's never said specifically

01:13what is happening, so it's up to the audience to decide what they think is going on outside

01:18the office. And we follow the journey of these four characters who volunteer to help

01:24make people's lives a bit more bearable over the course of five weeks.

01:29It sounds really appealing, it sounds intriguing. And you're following up on the back of a sellout

01:35last year with An Acorn. That's pressure, isn't it? You've got to do as well again.

01:39Absolutely, yes. So we had a three-night run of Improbable Fiction by Alan Akebourne last

01:45February, which sold out at the studio in the Capitol, which was amazing for us. So we're

01:51really hoping to get everybody who came to see that show come back, and new audience members,

01:56and yeah, have another smash on our hands, hopefully.

02:00Well, good luck with that. And part of the plan also is to move back to two productions a year,

02:05isn't it?

02:06Yes, ideally. We're hoping to be back in November, yeah, to do two a year at the Capitol.

02:12So yeah, watch this space.

02:14Fantastic. Well, good luck with You Stupid Darkness,

02:17Theatre 48 at the Capitol in Horsham. Alex, lovely to speak to you. Thank you.

02:22Thanks, Bill.