For a young girl in Bhopal, India, the ‘city of lakes’ is full of childhood wonder, filled with blue skies and time spent with her father and sister. But looming in the background of 1984 is the world’s most devastating industrial disaster. As the enormous factory begins to tower over the region, the impending threat and horror explode in this ferocious new work from playwright Titas Halder.
The piece centres around the unnamed ‘She’ (Linnea Berthelsen), a girl from the slums whose absent mother lingers over the household. She is spirited and feisty, desperate to keep the family together amid her older sister’s destiny to marry, while also fighting off slurs and hurtful taunts regarding the colour of her skin. Chastised for her ‘darkness’, India’s caste system maintains an ever present influence here, subjugating her. Over 90 minutes, Darkling weaves through her early upbringing, the devastation of temporarily moving to the city for work, and the abuse it brings her sister, before returning to Bhopal, where the ‘metal giant’, a pesticide factory, monstrously dominates the skyline.
It is here that Halder’s script brutally pivots. From She’s naive youth emerges a teenager ravaged by lost love and a broken family, forced into a loveless marriage. Just as she finds the courage to escape, disaster strikes, leaving a pregnant She and her community in harm’s way as a toxic gas burns lungs, mutilates eyes, and murders thousands in a sequence that is both horrifying and devastating.
Directed by Matthew Xia, Berthelsen is remarkable in crafting the playful innocence of She before it is so cruelly and bitterly robbed from her. The script is both compelling and bleak, yet over the one act Berthelsen maintains a terrific sense of energy and poise, handling the numerous social criticisms and awful events with great care and grace. Her wide eyed excitement about the countryside, finding love, and playing Uno with her sister are all eventually replaced with blood soaked pupils, with the piece reaching a painfully bitter ending that combines She’s desperation and strength in a remarkable individual performance. While there is a balance here between clearly and furiously portraying the real world suffering of She and those like her caught up in the disaster, the last thirty minutes present an intense and deeply uncomfortable sequence of relentless, horrifying events happening to the character, all brought to the fore brilliantly by a frantic and captivating Berthelsen.
What is utterly palpable in Halder’s work, and in this production, is the sheer rage over how this was allowed to happen, along with the manner in which those impacted were covered up, ignored, and left to suffer excruciatingly. As the factory manifests into human form in She’s mind, her furious monologue decrying its exploitation is urgent and forceful. Berthelsen succeeds in maintaining enough composure, despite the violence her character suffers, to deliver this with both pain and power, building to a stark climax that allows silence to be both Berthelsen and Halder’s greatest tool.
The blend of Xia’s direction, Berthelsen’s devastating performance, and Halder’s script largely succeeds, underpinned by Rajiv Pattani’s gorgeous lighting designs, which swing from the greens, blues, and whites of sunshine and nature to the murky, violent transitions that bring the burning gas. Pattani’s lighting combines superbly with the smoke effects ominously drifting out from Simon Kenny’s set to create a truly horrifying landscape and a sense of entrapment around She.
There is, perhaps, too much trauma here, though. In this sense, Darkling risks feeling slightly uneven. The transition from colourful youth to the play’s dread filled finale works, but Halder’s script is unrelenting in She’s suffering. The horror of the Bhopal disaster is rightly spotlighted, but the play’s scrutiny of patriarchal oppression, sexual assault, the caste system, the subjugation of India’s slum communities, and the exploitation by large capitalist companies all collide at such a rate that it takes a while for Darkling to settle, despite its unforgettable and haunting ending.
Nevertheless, Darkling, despite its overwhelming brutality, never fails to honor the human cost. Whether through deft touches such as a throwaway comment about oil specks in the water, or the traumatising spectacle of She, blinded, trying to navigate her way home, Halder’s script is a damning reminder of the toll capitalist ideology takes on individuals and their environments, rightly eliciting furious empathy by its end.
A shocking and disturbing piece of theatre, but one that leaves a lasting impact.
Darkling runs until 24 October before embarking on a tour: HOME Manchester – 11 – 14 November, Birmingham Rep – Door – 30 – 31 October and The North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford – 3 – 4 November
