Dark is the Night / Starving Necrophilia
Greyfriars Kirk House, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Group: Blue Dog Productions

Dave Clements

In Dark is the Night, written and performed by Szilard Varnai, a man bottles out of jumping off a a building. It emerges that he is a gay Hungarian refugee. His lover, a married man, has already jumped to his death following the exposure of their affair, and his wife leaving him. The 'me or your wife' ultimatum didn't work.

He said he loved him. Surely that was enough. How could he give it all up? His decision not to jump should be life-affirming but it isn't. For him, existence is undermined by doubt. In choosing life he promises 'not to ask its purpose'.

In Starving Necrophilia, written and directed by Lisa Cagnacci and performed by Molly Levine, a woman strips. Like some Lady Macbeth ('out damn spot'), she scrubs herself to remove the dirt that has sunk in, but how far? 'How much do I have to peel away', for when 'memory is written in the body, hot water is not enough'.

She sees 'crowds of moving corpses', death all around her waiting to happen. Seeking a 'real me, beyond silly flimsy meat', she is all blood and bone ('the only solid thing about me'). Everything would be different if she could better resemble her skeletal self, if she could lose 7lb, maybe 10 .. or 15. All you need is a mirror, a bathroom scale and a death wish. 'Starving, I am perfect' she says, but 'I could devour the world'.

He has given up on life without love, but continues to 'exist'. She trawls her body in search of a new 'clean' identity. They share a sense of impotence and alienation that leaves them confused, rudderless and exposed to circumstance.

Two compelling performances, two contemporary explorations of life through death.

4 August to 17August.

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