Real-life crime, murder mysteries and unsolved cases have taken off in recent years, with many of us binging on gruesome details and horrific stories of criminals past. Many of them are rooted in the nature of the world we live in and given the threats some within our society face as a result of this, it’s no wonder that some may want to fight against it.
Dead Girls Rising begins with Katie and Hannah, two girls who enjoy true crime, particularly murder, and clearly enjoy their pastime together, which they’ve had for many years. It’s when discussing a local true crime that they accidentally summon The Furies, Greek goddesses who revel in death as much as the girls do. Set to the tune of punk rock, the girls go through their lives being shaped by the world around them, and forced to face the unfairness of the world, with murder still at their hearts.
This show was certainly a surprise I must say! I have no idea what I was expecting when I went in but it definitely wasn’t what I saw! But regardless of what I thought originally, this show was simply brilliant. Sitting on the border of play and musical (I’m leaning more towards musical), the whole idea of this production as a coming-of-age statement against a patriarchal world and showcasing the experiences that many of us have faced or felt as a result of this is such a unique concept that works so well.
The plot was well paced, and the intimacy of the Playhouse space really helps to draw you into the play and feel the issues our characters are facing. This show does have extensive content warnings, but seeing these physically handed to audience members before doors opened was a massive positive.
I don’t often go into each element of a show’s technical makeup but one like this certainly warrants all of the praise it can garner. To start with the set itself, the production uses this forest floor-like platform with bare trees coming up from it which is the setting for the start and end of the show, but they use their choreography and props around them to morph this forest into a number of different settings incredibly well. It also adds to the threatening effect when faces start appearing in the shadows.
These masks were used at several points to help demonstrate a departure from cast members’ regular characters and had a really useful dehumanising effect, which given the nature of the wider world was an interesting comparison. I really enjoyed seeing all of The Furies’ costumes which were nothing short of fantastic. Eye-catching, each unique and all looking exceptional. They worked really well with the lighting design, helping to accentuate the costumes, hide cast members and change the tone of a scene in a heartbeat, which given the use of a range of instruments by The Furies on stage and the powerful sounds these gave off, really tied every element of the production together into something that, I think, is technically genius all around.
The final piece of this astounding production is, of course, the cast. The six-strong team were all great in their parts, but the standouts were the three Furies. Played by Zoe West, Rebecca Levy and Izzy Neish as Megaera, Alecto and Tisiphone respectively, the three formed an exceptional team, whether it’s enacting a murder, speaking directly to our main characters or giving us all of the musical numbers, including playing instruments on stage themselves. I found myself drawn to them whenever they were on stage, and yet were still able to pop up almost unexpectedly, which at times caught me off guard! I have no idea if these three are in a band outside of the show but if they’re not, I’d love to see The Furies exactly as they are in the show as a separate entity, they were all simply amazing.
Dead Girls Rising is such a uniquely brilliant production that I am very glad I was able to catch. Every element of the show blends together seamlessly to form this powerful narrative that is delivered so effectively. I would love to see this show return in any form, especially with another U.K. tour or even an Off-West End or West End run. It was astounding.
Rating: ★★★★★
Dead Girls Rising is playing in the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse until June 11th, in the final performance of its tour
