Review – John Robertson: The Dark Room

Aside from the one woman born in the 1940’s and the boy of 13 the entire crowd for John Roberston’s the Dark Room were born in the ‘80’s and ’90’s. This is relevant because John creates a text-based adventure game similar to those experienced by youngsters at the advent of computer gaming. Anyone who has experienced such a game as a young person would know that they were fruitless and absurd and this is the premise for John Roberson’s performance. The audience are taken through a series of witless option, which seem as if they will tell a story and lead to an imaginative adventure.

The absurdity of these styles of games coupled with the audience interaction work to make this a funny show. It’s not side-splitting laughter but I found myself laughing most of the time.

When going into an interactive show there can be a sense of trepidation for some audience members and the ferocious nature of John’s interaction with the audience can be a little terrifying but there is no need to worry. There are plenty of loud, wacky people willing to put themselves in the way of John’s nasty style of humour and to be belittled and ultimately to lose at the game.

John at one point described his show as “absurdist humour”, and there can be no argument of that. A man in a dark room with a tiny book light and an X-Box controller around his neck is without doubt absurd. It’s definitely worth seeing.