When heading into this show I truly had no idea what to expect. With the description of radical dance horror, I believed it would be like nothing I had seen before, and I was right. 

GONER is mostly a dance piece, with a small section of speech in the middle, and interjections led by sound and lighting elements that truly stand out. The story follows a character called ‘The Goner’ – a figure moving through life with a ‘final destination’ style bind to death which leads to an inescapable series of horrific events. The inspiration of the themes shown are taken from the unique experiences of Caribbean migration. The storytelling is expertly done, trusting the audience to interpret and understand each carefully chosen movement. The piece does use traditional techniques of horror, so if you aren’t a fan of blood or jumpscares, this one may not be for you. I, however, loved the build of tension pushing audiences to the back of their seats, and holding their breath.

Marikiscrycrycry (Malik Nashad Sharpe) was an engaging performer and choreographer of the piece. The choices made with the sections of choreography – to reflect the character journey, and pull in dance inspiration from Caribbean styles – tied the show together perfectly. His performance was expert and effortless, until it wasn’t supposed to be.  

The opening kicked in with loud music and a strong beat, where we found our character on stage dancing repetitively with steps that we later find out are references to the journey he goes through. From side steps to jarring sexual movements and gun shots, raising the tension and leaving you trying to piece together where this will go. This movement sequence continued for enough time that you felt lulled into a false sense of security, until the rug was ripped away.

The split of sections throughout, showing the different attempts and failures of escaping death were separated well and never felt repetitive. You truly wanted to be on his side and hope that this time will be the time he actually slips away from the grip death has. 

While most of the performance is purely movement, in the middle there is a break where we got to meet ‘The Goner’ for the first time through his own words. The section blends well and never feels like a strange interruption to the movement of the piece. Even though the discussion gets quite dark, and you start to learn how he has made his way into this prison-style setting, the piece could be comical. The audience were laughing as he recounted this tale of premeditated murder, and I’m unsure any other performer except Malik would be able to bring the character this amount of personality. It was a much needed breather in the middle of the piece, allowing us to relax slightly, as we find ourselves strangely starting to join the side of the murderer in this story. I do think the speech section, as much as I enjoyed it, was the perfect length. If it was extended we would hear too much from the character which could break our sympathy, and if we heard less the audience wouldn’t be as convinced. My only suggestion would be to slow the speech down, at times it felt it was going faster than I could hold the information. 

I do find myself feeling slightly uncomfortable with the use of sexual assault within the piece. I’m not sure if it’s because it is quite explicitly shown and spoken about, or whether it was genuinely used a lot throughout the hour-long piece. It is a common convention I find, especially within the horror genre, to build tension, make audiences uncomfortable and shock them, but I feel it wasn’t effective enough. I understand how it fits within recounting experiences but I feel it would be more impactful used once. In the spoken section it was mentioned fleetingly in a monologue of other major events so it becomes smaller, whereas in the movement section, against the wall, it felt as if it was there for shock factor. The intent could be to show how we gloss over sexual assault in our life if we dont have power, a voice or an opportunity to realise its wrong, but if that’s so I wanted more pointing us in that direction. 

The lighting (designed by Barnaby Booth) and music composition/sound design (Luke Blair) were almost characters in themselves in this piece, with the performer interacting with them in a similar way. The technical possibilities were explored expansively. Stand out lighting moments for me include a shadow-box that allowed our performer to manipulate his body into long and slender nightmarish figures, and seeing subtle bleeds of blue and red when there was a gruelling police line-up. As for sound, the large hanging megaphone style speaker gives you more of an idea of the setting through the piece, and when it does finally speak for itself it is harrowing. It repeats the same 5 or 6 words, but the fear and anger you can feel humming from the performer towards the object makes you hold your breath, and want to shout at him all at once, particularly when it starts to count down. The music underlies the entire piece, with heavy beats that add to the feeling of your heart racing. One of my favourite elements of theatre is when a designer knows just when to use silence to their full advantage, and towards the end of the piece this is just what they did. 

Horror is such a difficult genre to put on stage, but GONER truly captures the tension, shock and gore you would expect, wrapped into a captivating and breath-holding performance from Malik. It is a performance that I will be thinking about for a long time, and that has occasionally visited my nightmares since seeing it. 

Recommended Drink: I would pair this show with a tall glass of ice-cold water to bring you back down to earth.

You can see GONER at The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London on Wednesday 3rd and Thursday 4th of April.

Content Warnings: This show contains strong language, flashing lights, haze, verbal references to sex, verbal references to murder, loud sounds including gunshots, sensitive themes and topics, partial nudity, violence, and simulated blood. 

You can find tickets for future performances here.