Archangels

"Physical violence? That leaves a trace. Nah, psychological warfare, that's where it's at."

~ Twister

"Derek is dead. A promise was broken.

In a rainy northern town, a young woman struggles to come to terms with the recent loss of her partner. When a stranger shows up to take over the tenancy, the nature of this tragedy starts to become unclear, and the monsters of her mind, the Archangels, begin to infect the world around her.

Archangels is a dark, psychological horror exploring grief, trauma, and what it means to be human."

Archangels was the week six weekend show of the University of York Drama Society's spring 2024 season. It was my first attempt at writing a horror, and was the most technically complicated show I'd ever put on at the time of it's performance. It also marks the first time since The Pillowman that I had the opportunity to work with an entirely new cast on one of my shows.

The development of the play began with an extensive research period. As the main character, Sandy, relapses into an unspecified form of psychosis during the show, it was important to determine how to portray the symptoms on-stage. The goal was to give a depiction that, whilst dramatised for the purposes of telling the story, was respectful of the condition. This included working alongside and re-working the script based on feedback from those who have, or did have, psychotic symptoms, alongside my own research.

One of my own focusses in writing Archangels was to improve my naturalistic dialogue, since the play draws a lot of inspiration from the work of Mike Flanagan (Haunting of Hill House, Oculus, etc.). It was fundamental that the conversational tone be able to carry the play's dense story,  especially when following the narrative's three interwoven plotlines that converge half-way through its second act. Despite being a horror, the script was written with more attention paid to the characters and their personal conflicts, with the Archangels themselves only making three notable appearances overall. At its core, Archangels tackles difficult topics of grief and trauma, so writing a play that only focussed on scaring the audience would not have brought with it the intended effect. It was also an opportunity to write a play that had some levity - as my past works, namely The Unspoken's first edition and The Last Masquerade, suffered at times from their overtly grim content. Whilst Archangels is somewhat darker overall in regards to the story, it brings a more bittersweet levity in its tone that prevents it from ever truly getting stuck in a feeling of hopelessness.

The overall design approach was to create a form of stylised minimalism. The set was fairly bare - two blocks were constructed and mounted on wheels - and these served as both couches, church pews, and, when pushed together in the centre of the stage, Sandy's bed. Above the stage we constructed a large set of angel wings out of rope and dust sheets, which we then lowered down during the play's intense climax.

Because of the minimalist set, it fell to the rest of the design to communicate the eight locations featured in the play's twenty-one scenes. None of these elements was more immersive than the sound design. We worked closely with the University of York  Technical Theatre society (Tech Soc) to rework the Drama Barn's simple left-right pan into a more immersive, 5 speaker surround-sound design. During scenes featuring the titular Archangels, we made use of 'whisper tracks' - recorded whispering of the actors - which we could then bounce around the space, including behind the audience, thereby reflecting the feeling of being trapped that is experienced by Sandy.

The Archangels themselves, being manifestations of Sandy's worsening mental state, each had their own strikingly unique appearance. From the scarily-relevant priest-like appearance of Kramer, to the bagged head of Nix, and the dark veil of Ire, many of the costume elements were handmade specifically for the production, and when combined with the actors' eerie performances and the movement work that had been undertaken with them, created a haunting and memorable set of characters.

With the lighting design, we made use of an array of eight RGBW 'Sabre Spots' - LED lights that, owned by the Barn, had been put out of use by a faulty electrical cable. As part of our technical research and development, we devised a solution that would allow us to safely power these fixtures, making Archangels the first show in the Barn to ever use them during a performance, and lending the show an entirely unique visual aesthetic. These tech elements, combined with the original soundtrack, created a horrifically immersive production.

Archangels won awards for it's sound design, the emotional death of Sandy, as well as for it's marketing material (visible through the Instagram).