Review: UNDER THE BLACK ROCK at Arcola

Stuart King 7 March, 2023, 10:02

A giant, ominous black rock is suspended by ropes above the playing area in the staging of a new and hard-hitting drama about The Troubles by Tim Edge. Twenty-Five years after the Good Friday Agreement finally brought to an end the decades of bloodshed in Northern Ireland, UNDER THE BLACK ROCK serves as a timely reminder of what’s at stake.

Under the Black Rock. Photo credit Gregory Haney.

The main enticement for theatregoers to attend the play currently enjoying a run at the Arcola in E8, comes in the form of Evanna Lynch known to many for her portrayal of Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter movies. Here, as Niamh Ryan she is eventually revealed as a stool pigeon, having watched her terrorist father (John Nayagam) destroy his family through drink, determined arrogance and intimidation. As young recruits join the ranks of the militant catholic organisation and embark on their first murderous exercises, the hierarchy takes steps to expose treachery and the faction implodes under the destabilising weight of suspicion. The presence of the black igneous rock whilst conveying the geology of the area, also doubles as Damoclesian metaphor as the scenes unfold and at one point radiates an orange red glow following a car bomb detonation — an all-too-familiar sound of tragedy for those of a certain generation.

In delivering a balance of harrowing and lighthearted elements in the script, the entire company acquits itself well but it is Elizabeth Counsell in particular (as Mary), who bustles her way in and out of episodes, playfully scene-stealing as she goes.