RADIANT BOY: A HAUNTING - Southwark Playhouse (27/05/25)

Chilling new supernatural play by Netherwood has us gripped

Ghosts and demonic possession have always been phenomena that have puzzled and intrigued us since the days of Mesopotamia, and the established, almost explicit relationship between religion and the occult can also be traced back thousands of years, so is it any wonder that it makes for such compelling storytelling on both stage and screen. We all know the attached motifs relating to such stories by now, the question is can playwrights and screenwriters, even today, come up with new ways to incorporate these into an original piece?

Wendy Nottingham and Stuart Thompson (credit: Olivia Spencer)

Whilst many of the tropes we experience in Nancy Netherwood's new play "Radiant Boy: A Haunting" aren't breaking new ground by any stretch, how the piece cleverly explores the notion of queer individuality and acceptance from a god-fearing parental figure, and the gradually shifting perception of a college dropout's psychological state, has us fully invested. Russell Chapman (played by Stuart Thompson), who has returned home go the north east from music studies in London, has been experiencing unusual symptoms, seeing spectres and hearing voices, so his mother hires "psycho divinity" specialist Father Miller, in the hope that he can, as Russell facetiously remarks, perform an "exorcism" on him.

The juxtaposition between genuine psychological turmoil and the notion of paranormal possession, as well as the fragmented relationship between fact and faith, is really rather brilliant, as we experience a gradual build from the over-bearing nature of how Russell's mother Maud is presented, and what initially presents as a tumultuous dichotomy between two wildly differing mindsets and ideologies, morphs into something all the more sinister. Thompson's depiction of the troubled figure of Russell is so expertly graded, from his initial flippancy and dismissiveness, to how he manages to brilliantly characterise the out-of-body nature often attached to demonic possession, and it is truly terrifying.

Renée Lamb (credit: Olivia Spencer)

Wendy Nottingham plays Maud with unyielding vehemence, and at times true ferocity, as she puts her own marvellous spin on the god-fearing matriarch. But it's the ever lurking figure of "The Voice" (who also manifests herself as university friend Steph) that is the constant in this play, perpetually either in the periphery of our consciousness, or indirectly involved in the action, as she dips in and out as Russell's memories facilitate. She is portrayed with fervent ever-presence by Renée Lamb, giving us a perfect distinction between The Voice's subtle background looming, and Steph's bubbly extroversion as Russell's main external influence.

Father Miller is presented as your archetypal priest, kindly yet quietly condescending, and in this case, as portrayed brilliantly by Ben Allen, an unabashed gaslighter. The minimal visual elements in play for director Júlia Levai means that the production relies heavily on the characters and their execution, and the respective performances by the four-person cast make for a chilling, gripping, and unwaveringly intense experience, with Patch Middleton and Elinor Peregrin's sound design playing masterfully into the thrilling sense of tension that Hitchcock would have been proud of.

★★★★☆

"Radiant Boy" plays at Southwark Playhouse until the 14th of June