Under the Shadow at Almeida: Psychological horror set against Tehran’s 1988 bombing
Under the Shadow | Alneida Theatre | ★★★★☆
This has been quite a year for horror theatre. In January we saw the UK debut of the Paranormal Activity stage show, dragging the voyeuristic, found-footage franchise kicking and screaming into the West End. And soon after the Hampstead Theatre premiered a more fringe-y affair in the sound-booth-based A Ghost in Your Ear, using modern binaural technology to whisper its spooky story directly into your frightened little ears.
Now the Almeida joins them with its own decidedly cerebral brand of horror, focusing on a haunting in the home of an Iranian family during the 1988 bombing of Tehran.
It follows a young, middle class family who have fallen out of favour with the new religious regime, barring trainee doctor Shideh from her studies and seemingly condemning her to a life of tiresome domesticity. Things get worse when her husband – also a doctor – is called away to the front line in the Iran-Iraq war, leaving Shideh to look after their daughter. As Saddam Hussein’s bombs begin to fall and the mental states of the residents of Shideh’s apartment block become increasingly strained, they start to wonder whether something supernatural may have insinuated itself into the chaos.
Under the Shadow follows in the grand tradition of ‘haunting-as-metaphor-for-trauma’ titles, recalling modern classics such as Hereditary and The Babadook, although the parallels to the current war engulfing Iran add a horrible sense of urgency to the events (perhaps more than anything, though, it reminds me of the video game Devotion, set in a 1980s Taipei apartment and dealing with similar themes of repressive religious doctrine, guilt and societal pressures). After all, as bombs shake the walls and neighbours are carried lifeless from your block, who wouldn’t begin to lose their mind a little?
Under the Shadow is brilliantly staged
The Almeida’s usually-sparse stage is dominated by Ben Stones’s meticulously detailed recreation of a middle class Tehran apartment, complete with an old CRT-TV in the corner upon which Shideh watches illicit exercise videos.
It’s a slow-burn affair, the tension slowly rising like the whistle of a boiling kettle. At first the idea of a ghost – or djinn to use local parlance – seems absurd… Until it doesn’t. And when you eventually catch a glimpse of… something, it’s genuinely chilling, even if the play does fall into the trap of overplaying its hand a little in the second half.
But for the most part, this is a taut psychological thriller held together by a string of powerful but understated performances, especially Leila Farzad in the lead and her terrified daughter, with the young Erin Jemmotte (on press night, at least – there’s a rotating cast for the role) trusted to be the emotional crux of the play.
Under the Shadow is proof that the stage can be every bit as scary as the cinema. Given as much as 17 per cent of the UK cinema box office is taken by horror movies, the biggest surprise is that it’s taken theatre so long to catch up.
• Under the Shadow at the Almeida is on until 4 July – book tickets here