Unlike any other theatre experience

“It’s the sort of play that encompasses so many facets of the human experience, in particular, the experience of growing up and finding one’s self in the world…finding connection when the world essentially tells you you don’t belong.”

That is director, Alexander Berlage describing the Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s Let The Right One In, which is now midway through its season at Eternity Playhouse. 

Let The Right One In first came into being in 2004, as a novel written by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist. Its main characters are a 12-year-old boy, Oskar, and a one-hundred year old vampire, Eli who presents as a pre-teen child. Acclaimed writer, Jack Thorne wrote the stage adaptation of what has already become a Nordic noir classic. 

For Berlage, putting this story on stage was a rare and exquisite challenge.  

“With theatre, you don’t often get an opportunity to work on shows that exist within the genre space, and in particular, the space of horror and supernatural,” explains Berlage, “so it was the fact that we were able to, you know, work on a piece that was deeply human but also so theatrical and supernatural that got me so excited.”

The original book has spawned several film and television adaptations and that means there are people in the audience who have experienced one or more interpretations of the narrative, as well as those coming in fresh. Then there is the plethora of vampire-themed media in pop culture. It all sets expectations, preconceptions. 

Berlage advises leaving those at the door. This is different.  

Let The Right One In is really an exploration of visceral and universal human experience. At its core is the ever-deepening connection between Oskar (Will McDonald) and Eli (Sebrina Thornton-Walker). Both live on the outer rims of social interaction. Oskar is bullied; Eli is enigmatic, different. 

Around them, the world is hostile, but between them, it is filled with potential beauty. 

There is a lot of violence, blood, horror in the story and much of it is depicted on stage, though not gratuitously. Berlage’s aim is create empathy between the characters and the audience. 

“Going to the theatre is an invitation to walk inside someone’s shoes and to see the world through someone else’s eyes. That’s the invitation you give to audiences. Some people won’t like the time in that person’s shoes or like the time in that person’s eyes,” says Berlage. He wants the audience to enter another realm, be absorbed into the fiction. 

“I’m a very big believer that theatre, at its core, should be a place of very big theatricality, of boldness, of helping to transport audiences to worlds and places that you wouldn’t go in your day to day life.”

And for two and a half hours, Let The Right One In does indeed take audiences out of Eternity Playhouse and into a desolate, stark, cold suburban Swedish ghetto. The set is sterile – somewhere between industrial and clinical, always dimly lit, usually covered with swirling mist. An originally composed soundtrack sustains the mood. 

But it is the two young leads who give this production its soul. 

“What Will and Sebrina both bring to the stage is the most incredible heart and intensity and emotion, and it has been such a joy to work with these two young performers. The chemistry they have between them is unlike anything I’ve ever seen; they manage to encapsulate the loneliness, the heartbreak and the desperate desire for connection in a place of darkness so beautifully.”

Let The Right One In will not be for everyone – as is true for any play. For Berlage, it is a personal tour de force and a production he feels very proud and enthusiastic to share with a willing audience. 

“I’d say, come if you want to moved, come if you want to experience the theatricality of supernatural on stage, but if you’re wanting a stale living room drama, save your money.”

Until November 19

Eternity Playhouse, 39 Burton St, Darlinghurst

www.darlinghursttheatre.com/lettherightonein