There is a new catchphrase doing the rounds at this year’s Fringe: “Very spooky.” And if you’ve been anywhere near The Master, you’ll understand why.
Steffen Haanes returns to the Banshee Labyrinth for one final ritual, a reworking of The Ritual that plunges its audience into a vault that feels considerably more like a crypt. The Master needs fresh blood before midnight or faces eternal dust. Naturally, he invites us along for the ride.
The result is an hour of deliciously silly, occasionally genuinely unnerving supernatural theatre. Monday brings the doll, and if you’re phobic about toy dolls, you may wish to reconsider your life choices before entering. This is one seriously spooky doll, possessed by Maria Ansdell – and whatever you do, don’t wind her up. Oh, and there’s Tuesday, the otter. Yes, the otter.
Somewhere between the two lies the strange genius of The Master: it constantly teases the boundary between playful scare and genuine fright. You know you’re watching a show, you know you’re being manipulated, and yet Haanes manages to create moments when you really do wonder what might happen next.
The audience is a willing participant – or, more accurately, a willing congregation – ready to serve The Master and become part of his growing cult following. And while The Master has opinions, this is definitely not political. Probably.
Haanes, with his Danish-Norwegian delivery, makes an entertaining contrast with the purebred Oxfordian tones of Maria Ansdell. Together they create a bizarrely effective combination of menace, comedy and ritualistic nonsense. It is, perhaps, two minutes of genuine spookiness stretched into an hour. But that’s rather the point. The Master knows exactly what it is: playful, theatrical, slightly ridiculous and just creepy enough to make you check behind you on the way out.
So remember the new Fringe catchphrase: Spooky. Very spooky.
Be there – or be dead.
