Beyond Dark: Theater in the Dark Festival

The Odyssey ran two separate evenings of in-the-dark plays late last year; reactions were positive enough to encourage the company to create a composite evening called ”Beyond Dark”. The new show, which opened in early January 2013, melds key short plays from Theater in the Dark, Parts One and Twointo a single 90-minute whole.

Despite my decision, after having reviewed Part One, not to return to the Odyssey for another dose of sightless theater, I found myself sitting in stygian gloom once again, listening to the work of a dozen-odd writers -- and enjoying the experience.

It helps that the actors in the Odyssey Theater Ensemble deliver remarkably assured and polished performances (they also helped create two of the short plays on the bill, Prehistoric Hunt and Elegant Dinner). The latter, a comic slice of cannibalism, made me laugh out loud. The same went for Beth Hogan's A Story, a satirical account of the joys of shopping -- and eating -- at Whole Foods.

Among the tales on the frightening side were a retelling of Poe's “Tell-Tale Heart” and an original sketch, One of the Lost, about a secret Soviet cosmonaut lost in space and pleading with control center to be saved.

Beyond Dark is greatly aided by John Zalewski's sound design. Magnified by the Odyssey's brand-new eight-channel surround system, it gives a palpable spatial dimension to the evening. Zalewski's use of music is also highly effective.

Fittingly, the evening ends with two ghostly figures -- Alan Abelew and Sheelagh Cullen -- gliding round the stage to the tune of "Dancing in the Dark."