Review: SOMETHING AWFUL, VAULT Festival

Soph (Natalya Martin) and Jel (Monica Anne) love sitting in the dark reading creepypasta on the internet. Ellie (Melissa Parker) has just moved to their school and, while they welcome her in their group, she comes with some baggage and her own scary stories.

Something Awful, Flux Theatre's contribution to VAULT Festival, is an unsettling play inspired by the true events of the 2014 "Slender Man stabbing" in Wisconsin. Written by Tatty Hennessy and directed by Lucy Jane Atkinson, the piece goes beyond the analysis of the run-up of a horrifying crime but tackles teenage anxieties, bullying, female friendship, parenting, and the relationship between the digital and reality.

With the overhead train noises coming from Waterloo Station playing in their favour and the naturally eerie atmosphere of The Vault's largest space, Atkinson shapes a thrilling and thought-provoking journey into the inner workings of a trio of 13-year-olds. Hennessey offers quick snapshots of their lives: mundane chats and school politics are mixed with their growing interest for the online reports of a puzzling figure in the woods who carries an axe.

As their entanglement with the creepypasta website and evidence takes over, their own internal frictions and outer pressure have the three girls turning against each other subtly. They struggle with growing pains and insecurity while absent or overbearing parents leave their mark on the young teens. Although the ending seems slightly rushed in the grand scheme of things, Something Awful is a compelling and well-paced show.

Holly Ellis's lights and Sam Glossop's sound design shroud Atkinson's tempo with an air of mystery, creating soft jumpscares and supporting the changes in tone of Hennessey's script. What starts as an innocuous hobby quickly turns into a heart-racing nightmare in this layered and perceptive take on the dangers of today's world.

Something Awful runs at VAULT Festival until 2 February.