It isn’t often that the audience is asked to bring their own torch to a performance.
But The Company of Wolves is no ordinary show. Theatre group Burn The Curtain have turned Angela Carter’s horror tale into an interactive experience – and it takes place entirely in the dark woods of Stanmer Park.
We are split into two groups; the runners, dressed in red and responsible for chasing down the wolf, and the walkers in blue, who must search the woods for a missing bride.
It weaves in music and classic fairy-tales, and though we may be laughing and singing at the beginning, the suspense soon takes over.
Stanmer Park at night is an eerie and atmospheric place, far better suited to the spine-chilling tale than any theatre could be.
The cast are superb, remaining in character as they mingle with the audience in the interval, and the use of dramatic irony is particularly enthralling.
The interactive performance encourages the audience to work together, and by the end we’re wild as the wolves, howling our approval as the play ends.
It’s a spellbinding production and, as we leave, shadows in the trees provoke a final thrill of fear. Perhaps the wolves aren’t only in fairy-tales.
Five stars
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