The Guardian ·
Darkling review – Stranger Things’ Linnea Berthelsen confronts a gruesome Indian disaster
Ominousness permeates Darkling. In Titas Halder’s dramatic monologue, we witness a young girl’s coming of age set against the backdrop of the 1984 toxic gas leak in the Indian city of Bhopal, an environmental catastrophe that remains one of the worst industrial disasters in global history, leading to thousands of deaths.
Actor Linnea Berthelsen – best known for her role as Kali in Netflix series Stranger Things – makes her UK stage debut and gamely takes on the singular role in a tightly wound, physical performance. Leaping across Simon Kenny’s artful, soil-filled set, Berthelsen embodies childlike wonder as she recounts her early years playing in the rain, savouring bowlfuls of plain rice and idolising her older sister.
So far so good. Except, alongside her emotional growth, the silhouette of a new factory rises in the background – effectively portrayed by lighting designer Rajiv Pattani’s projection – foreshadowing the calamity to come. When it eventually arrives, we hear of the horrors she witnesses, stepping over maimed bodies, facing blinded relatives and breathing in toxic fumes, all relayed through increasingly frenzied description.
