Let The Right One In

Let The Right One In: first came the 2004 Swedish vampire novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, then a 2008 Swedish film adaptation by the author, then the 2010 U.S. remake Let Me In, and finally Jack Thorne, UK playwright of no lesser work than Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, did this 2013 stage version of the same strange tale.

For obvious reasons, Thorne had to move the story on from a little vampire stuck in her 10th year as an under-ageing 12-year-old. He shifted the focus to a lonely teenaged boy who moves next door to a strapping girl and her dodgy guardian. The girl only goes out at night when it’s really, really dark.

The story is intriguing and is played full-bore and all flags flying throughout the evening at the Eternity Playhouse. Chief flag-flyer is Sebrina Thornton-Walker as Eli, the mysterious girl-creature who comes to the back steps and disturbs our boy Oskar, played by Will McDonald. Will is bullied by all and sundry, but he somehow eventually rises to the challenge of Eli.

These two, from nothing in the dead of night, start the beginnings of a pairing. Thorton-Walker is brilliant at this, quietly going about her business (too quietly at times?), lining up her meals among the locals. And McDonald hits all the right notes as he is bullied and used by all and sundry.

The Eternity cast rise to the challenge and soon we are knee deep in murder and mayhem. A message posted at the theatre warns us of ‘extremely loud music and sound effects, strobe and very dim lighting, low fog and haze effects, blood and gore depiction, paedophilia and strong language’. You can’t say we weren’t warned.

Director Alexander Berlage blends all this into one perfect stew, with a Swedish accent throughout. The action passes on an excellent setting, by Isabel Hudson, with enough corners and spots for killing to set your heart free. Lighting is by Trent Suidgeest, Sound and Video Design by Daniel Herten, and there’s non-stop music from Composer James Peter Brown.

Frank Hatherley

Photographer: Robert Catto