Otto receives a pho­to on his phone one morn­ing. It’s of the house he and his fam­i­ly moved to when he was around 13. The house where some­thing nasty lived in the walls and came out to play…

This is a myth­i­cal sto­ry about a troll (both def­i­n­i­tions) trans­plant­ed to New Zealand in the ear­ly days of the Inter­net. We find out about Otto’s (Ralph McCub­bin How­ell) favourite chat room, his intim­i­dat­ing Nana, his new school and which sub­ject he dreads. The themes that thread through the script are pret­ty heavy — anx­i­eties, depres­sion, nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, mor­tal­i­ty, and inter­gen­er­a­tional fam­i­ly rela­tion­ships — and Trick of the Light The­atre han­dle them deft­ly. There’s a grow­ing sense of men­ace through the play that nev­er becomes over­whelm­ing. Using pro­jec­tors, mobile phones, pup­pets and shad­ow play makes the space feel expan­sive while iso­lat­ing McCub­bin How­ell (even though he’s joined on stage by Han­nah Smith). Smith per­forms var­i­ous char­ac­ters as well as oper­ates the lights. She’s so calm and col­lect­ed it’s a fun coun­ter­point to the some­times fright­en­ing sound design by Tane Upjohn-Beat­son. Direc­tor Char­lotte Bradley is the final mem­ber of the team to bring us this inven­tive show.

Con­tent note: The show includes men­tions of men­tal health and earth­quakes.

  • Troll on at BATS The­atre to 7 April 2018