ED2015 4/5 Reviews ED2015 Theatre Reviews

Jethro Compton’s Frontier Trilogy – Blood Red Moon (Jethro Compton Productions)

By Andy Leask | Published on Wednesday 12 August 2015

The first of Jethro Compton’s new trilogy starts with atmospheric, moody lighting and terse dialogue, fraught with tension. After an initial exchange in a chapel – the wooden room in which we sit – there is a slight jolt as the action regresses to a flashback, and we are to take the wooden walls for the wide-open plains of the West. Such feats of imagination are far from rare in theatre, but feel slightly at odds with the ethos of this otherwise immersive, site-specific production. This mild dissonance soon passes, though, as the tale of two brothers and the woman who comes between them unfolds, shot through with classic Western tropes, building to a gripping, satisfying climax.

C nova, until 31 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Andrew Leask]