Let the Right One In: Until December 21, Tickets cost £10 – £32
Against a bleak background of barren silver birches and falling snow, an unusual love story, drenched in blood, unfolds to the accompaniment of Olafur Arnalds’ mesmerising score. Director John Tiffany’s fluent production for the National Theatre of Scotland creates a wintery space where teenage angst and the supernatural coexist, a place where bullied teenager Oskar only finds happiness in the company of his strange new neighbour Eli (a bare-footed, otherworldly Rebecca Benson in washed out pink jumper) who has never eaten a sweet and turns out to be far from an ordinary teenage girl.
Martin Quinn’s Oskar captures all the awkward misery of a loner, an uneasy adolescent with a mother who drinks too much and an absent father who has no time for him. And Eli’s relationship with Ewan Stewart’s devoted but homicidal Hakan is even more complex and disconcerting.
Swift, subtly managed scene changes and Steven Hoggett’s choreographed movement sustain the unearthly atmosphere, and some unforgettable moments (not all of them gory!) make this touching – and brutal – coming of age drama a vampiric must see.
Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS royalcourttheatre.com
