“It seems a typical scary-movie storyline – but also makes audiences question their own psyche”

What is there to do when you’re stuck in a cabin in the middle of the woods? Read a book? Play some Scrabble? Hide from the monsters lurking outside in the dark?

When their holiday becomes a living nightmare, six friends find themselves fighting for their lives. With night closing in and paranoia tightening its grip, even familiar people begin to feel like strangers. When fear twists everything out of recognition, what do you believe? Who can you trust?

Set in a remote cabin in Germany’s Black Forest, horror comedy There’s Nothing There is a three-way collaboration between local companies Dumb Blonde Theatre, Apricity Theatre and Black Dog Productions. So we thought we’d get some answers from all three of them.

How did the three companies come together to make this work?
Dumb Blonde Theatre: We’d been moving in similar circles for a while, and had hugely admired each others’ work. We realized there was an opportunity to tell an exciting new story together, that might not have been possible for one single company to do alone.
Apricity Theatre: Having worked together in various capacities in the past, we all knew each others’ strengths as writers, producers, performers and directors, so decided to put our combined skillsets to good use and challenge ourselves to see what happens when you bring together three companies with three different approaches to making theatre. Turns out it works pretty well.

‘There’s Nothing There’ has a bunch of friends gathering for a holiday in a remote Black Forest cabin. Pics: Matthew Sterling

Tell us more about the Black Forest setting. Why there in particular?
DBT: Staying in a secluded cabin in the woods, far from other people, can be unnerving in itself. We found that setting our story in a different country made these characters feel even more isolated, and more desperate. Germany and the Black Forest have a rich cultural history of folk tales that feature all sorts of mythological creatures. We had loads of fun researching the different monsters and stories from German lore.
AT: We were throwing around concepts like Otherness, isolation, fear, paranoia. The current political climate may have been influencing us from afar. As we got deeper into our research, those concepts melted into the background and we started focusing more on the domestic setting and the claustrophobia that brought with it.
Black Dog Productions: We talked in length about typical horror movie tropes and how the genre has become so formulaic and predictable in recent years. It interested us to tell a story that appeared to follow the typical scary movie storyline, while making the audience question aspects of their inner psyche at the same time.

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“Friendships – and nerves – are pushed to the limits”: tell us more.
DBT: This group of friends are quite the broad church. As with plenty of friendship groups, you may find a dynamic where some are more sensible, others more reckless in their new environment.
AT: Once we’d decided that the characters were a group of friends, we wanted a setting that would make them as uncomfortable as possible. We’ve all heard of those holidays where everyone ends up fighting. It seemed like an effective way to ramp up the tension to make the horror element feel possible.
BDP: Our characters are such different people with varied priorities that have been thrust together in this cabin setting. A lot of cracks come to the surface, whether or not there are spooky goings-on!

There’s Nothing There is at the Alma Tavern Theatre from Feb 14-15. For more info, visit www.tickettailor.com/events/almatheatrecompany/326540

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