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You Stupid Darkness!
In a cramped, crumbling office, four volunteers spend a few hours every Tuesday night on the phone telling strangers that everything is going to be okay.
As the outside world disintegrates, they teeter on the edge of their own personal catastrophes. Their hopes and fears become entangled as they try, desperately, to connect with the callers and with each other.
Sam Steiner's You Stupid Darkness! is an urgent play about the struggle for optimism and community amid the chaos of a world falling apart. It was first seen at Theatre Royal Plymouth in February 2019, in a co-production between Paines Plough and Theatre Royal Plymouth.
As the outside world disintegrates, they teeter on the edge of their own personal catastrophes. Their hopes and fears become entangled as they try, desperately, to connect with the callers and with each other.
Sam Steiner's You Stupid Darkness! is an urgent play about the struggle for optimism and community amid the chaos of a world falling apart. It was first seen at Theatre Royal Plymouth in February 2019, in a co-production between Paines Plough and Theatre Royal Plymouth.
- GenresPlays
136 pages, Paperback
First published February 7, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 21, 2023
4.5, rounded up.
Fared MUCH better with this than Steiner's previous play (Kanye the First). The title comes from Lucy Van Pelt's (of 'Peanuts' fame) response to the adage 'It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness'. The play itself concerns a beleaguered and poorly funded helpline called Brightline, staffed by the four characters, and set sometime in the near future, after some unexplained ecological disaster has changed life irrevocably (the characters don gas masks every time they go outside).
The world is still somewhat recognizable (doughnuts are readily available!), and the characters react much in ways contemporary people do. The characters are all strongly delineated, have compelling arcs, and the play is funny, heartbreaking and thought-provoking. The script is laid out sideways on the page to accommodate the overlapping simultaneous dialogues when the characters are manning the phones, which was actually a lot easier to navigate than I initially anticipated. Would love to see it performed.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...
https://www.timeout.com/london/theatr...
Fared MUCH better with this than Steiner's previous play (Kanye the First). The title comes from Lucy Van Pelt's (of 'Peanuts' fame) response to the adage 'It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness'. The play itself concerns a beleaguered and poorly funded helpline called Brightline, staffed by the four characters, and set sometime in the near future, after some unexplained ecological disaster has changed life irrevocably (the characters don gas masks every time they go outside).
The world is still somewhat recognizable (doughnuts are readily available!), and the characters react much in ways contemporary people do. The characters are all strongly delineated, have compelling arcs, and the play is funny, heartbreaking and thought-provoking. The script is laid out sideways on the page to accommodate the overlapping simultaneous dialogues when the characters are manning the phones, which was actually a lot easier to navigate than I initially anticipated. Would love to see it performed.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...
https://www.timeout.com/london/theatr...
August 2, 2026
More so 3.5 stars. Wished like one more thing happened
May 1, 2020
This I LOVED. It made me think of a place I seldom think about. It made the thought of reaching out to a service like that more approachable. It also made me want to join that line of work myself and help others in vulnerable situations. I just loved the relationships between these characters and again Sam Steiner smashes it out of the park with the relatable dialogue. Joey and Jon’s stuff is pure poetry and I bloody love it!! I also love that it doesn’t go *too far* - just far enough for you to be intrigued about the context of their situations and we explore the drama of their everyday lives.
Also reading the book sideways wasn’t as tricky as I’d expected!!
Also reading the book sideways wasn’t as tricky as I’d expected!!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews