Darkling at Bush Theatre Review
Linnea Berthelsen in Darkling. Photo by Alex Brenner
Written by Titas Halder and directed by Matthew Xia, Darkling transports us to Bhopal in India, where we meet ‘She’ (remarkably played by Stranger Things’ Linnea Berthelsen) and hear her story. We meet her as a young girl who loves where she comes from, loves running around the village and loves the cat who she has informally adopted. We leave her when she is 18 years old, having faced a lifetime of traumatic events, a single flame lit in the centre of the stage. An ambitious one person show based on true events, at the Bush Theatre? I’m sold.
Berthelsen is instantly engaging and captivating to watch. She bounds around the minimal wooden stage and the surrounding earth with the energy of a young child as she starts her story in the Bhopal slum. Berthelsen plays numerous characters with no outfit changes, simply using her physical and vocal acting skills, morphing between them all with little effort at all. She moves seamlessly through different ages, locations and emotions, making the audience laugh and cry. It’s impossible to take your eyes off her.
The pivotal moments of Darkling are the building of the metal structure, eventually an industrial factory, and the chemical leak which emanates from the building. The factory haunts the play, an image of its bare bones illuminated against the backdrop. It is this factory that grows bigger and more prominent, all whilst ‘She’ is experiencing and witnessing sexual violence, marital expectations, first love and loss. We see hopes and dreams grow and then shatter, ‘She’ becoming resigned to her destiny of staying in Bhopal, becoming a wife and meeting those familial expectations. The chemical then begins to leak from the factory; light smoke is used to represent this. We see the sheer terror when ‘She’ realises what is happening, and her trying to find her father, all whilst tripping over dead animals and people. Considering we have one person on stage, we can easily imagine a whole town of people screaming out for help and cramming onto trains to flee the metal monster and the leak.
Rajiv Pattani’s light design was a particular stand out for me, glowing blue to represent Bhopal as ‘the city of lakes’ or green to represent the rolling countryside whilst ‘She’ travels to the big city with her father and sister, with the image of the factory creeping into sight. The intimate space of the Holloway Theatre within the Bush Theatre works extremely well; despite being the bigger space, it still manages to feel intimate and draws us into She’s world easily.
There are many difficult topics visited throughout, with a long list of content warnings. One topic which stuck with me was the one of loss, particularly ‘She’ miscarrying one baby and one being stillborn. Miscarrying whilst trying to flee the chemical leak is a difficult watch, as Berthelsen describes the life sinking into the soil that she once bounded around as a child. The stillborn baby being born with deformities related to the leak shows the devastating impact and aftermath of the events of one singular evening.
Darkling is not an easy watch at all, its unbelievable to think that this is based on a real life catastrophe. Despite this, you simply cannot look away from Berthelsen as she tells the story. This is one production which won’t leave your thoughts for a long time after the lights go up.
Darkling plays at the Bush Theatre until 24th October 2026
★★★★★
Written by Bronagh for Theatre and Tonic, September 2026.
