Words: Alex Grunberg

4 stars

The Hunger starts us off with a bang before pulling the audience into a world of quiet dread. We follow the story of a mother and daughter (whose respective contrasting high-anxiety and no-nonsense capability clash as the drama increases) facing a slowly revealed horror in this engrossing and mysterious new play. 

The two-person cast and the minimal farmhouse on the slim stage elevate the isolation explored in the script to a genuine sense of loneliness. The darkness of the theatre becomes the darkness of the world outside. The unseen becomes the untrusted. And while the horror creeps into the actresses’ vision, for the audience the world has been reduced to these two women and their power struggle. A power struggle that concludes with a fantastically subtle ending that trusts the audience and, more importantly, the strength of the writing. 

A mature and thoughtful take on familiar tropes, The Hunger is perfect for fans of indie horrors like ‘They Only Come Out at Night’ or ‘They Look Like People’ that focus on the relationships between characters and the paranoia caused by fear.

The Hunger
Assembly George Square Studios, Four
13.10
22-28 Aug