Monster – tongues are sharper than knives as secrets spill over the dinner table at this family reunion (Dark Forest Theatre at Sanctuary Theatre until Sunday 29 October)

Prodigal son Gabriel returns to the home lived in by his grieving mother and twin brother Michael. It’s an awkward welcome given his two years of globetrotting following the tragic deaths of his father and sister-in-law.

Dark Forest Theatre specialises in tales of the unexpected, and Nathan D Martin’s latest play Monster unlocks a succession of family secrets that spill out over the dinner table in the isolated, rural home.

There’s not a lot of love to be found. Festering sores have clearly broken any fraternal bonds, while Mother’s lack of maternal feelings have stretched from her children’s birth right up to their adulthood.

Things go from bad to worse, and the opportunity for making up and healing is illusive. Then comes an enormous firework of a revelation that throws new light on the tragic events a few years before, before a further twist – and a great evil grin – to round off the 75-minute one-act play.

What starts out as a family melodrama becomes a gruesome tale that Eastenders would struggle to screen as a Christmas Day special. The mood definitely fits the Halloween vibe at this time of year.

Gabriel (played by writer/director Martin) is suave but neither sophisticated nor an angel. Brother Michael (Glenn McGivern) is weary and downtrodden. But it’s when Mother (Marina Hampton) enters the room that the gloves come off and the verbal knives come out. Even when she’s not there, Mother has a presence. A framed photograph on the sideboard hints that she’s always listening. The prop is a nice nod to the domineering character who uses her sharp tongue to coerce her boys into doing her bidding, and respects no one while demanding everyone defer to her. Hampton has great fun building up the caustic and dismissive atmosphere.   

The overall structure works, with the cast confidently exploring the different pairings who get a chance to spar with each other, though some of the dialogue could be tweaked to be less formal in how they move the plot forward. When Gabriel explains his extreme role in a pivotal family event, would the normally not lost for words Michael and Mother really not interrupt? The heavy use of voiced inner monologues sometimes gives Monster the feel of being a radio play that has been dramatised for stage. Those are all things that can be revised if or when the play gets a second run.

Monster uses the extreme actions of a family to ask whether we’re all capable of violent acts motivated by love and anger borne out of loyalty. The development process is a key part of building capability and confidence in writers, directors, actors and back of house roles. So it’s good to see new work like this along with scratch theatre (this Thursday in Accidental Theatre) coming back to local stages after the pandemic. Performances of Monster continue at the Sanctuary Theatre in east Belfast until Sunday 29 October.

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