We, The Infected

[T]the stage version by the relentlessly inventive Glasgow-based troupe, while not devoid of vampiric cliches, conjures the austere Scandinavian atmospherics and the psychological intensity of an Ingmar Bergman movie, sometimes expressed in spurts of dance and music as well as in spare dialogue.

The setting of director John Tiffany’s affecting staging, a forest backdrop of tall silvery birch trees, exploits the ancient archetype of woodlands as a place of magic and danger . . . .

The forest is Oskar’s haven from the bullies who taunt and beat him at school, and from his divorced mother’s embittered alcoholism at home. It is also the hideout of Eli (Lucy Mangan), a wan, isolated adolescent vampire whose only companion, Hakan (Ewan Stewart), is a much older-looking (pedophilic?) demon who can no longer meet her basic needs for blood or intimacy. (This, in a way, is also his twisted love story.)

What most attracts Eli to Oskar is his unspoiled innocence, a quality she lost centuries ago. What Oskar responds to in Eli? Her quick intelligence and interest in him, a friendless outsider who blooms in her presence.

Both seek not just love, but mutual definition and acceptance. “What are you?” asks Oskar, when he realizes Eli may not be female, or fully human. “What do you think I am?” answers Eli, adding “I’m not that” — “that” being a monster.

Their sensitively acted encounters are touching and chilling, sweet and eerie, and interrupted by appalling vampire attacks on townspeople and merciless bullying sessions. . . . .

Acts of gory terror are staples of the genre, and they are plentiful here. . . . But “Let the Right One In” more creatively induces the creeps, and evokes depths of feeling, with the music of Olafur Arnalds and Gareth Fry’s sound design, a mercurial palette of swelling Wagnerian symphonics and sinister pulse-racing minimalism.

dongregg wrote:Thanks. A nice first look at what we'll see.