Horror is a difficult thing to do on the stage. Do too little and it becomes a sort of camp panto, do too much and the whole thing risks turning into a ghost train without wagons. Scatter is a one-man, one-hour, one-note tale of madness and supernatural threat, which avoids cliché to become something rather gripping.
Actor Patrick McPherson commits all his engines to a mesmerising performance of this grim tale. His charisma keeps us gripped from the start, and we are drawn in as the story progresses. This is a tightly choreographed show, superbly directed and taking full advantage of the ‘just large enough’ fringe theatre space.
This is a production that relies heavily on what you think you can see, rather than physical effects. Lighting and sound design are extremely well done, and yes, this show contains flashing lights and frequent plunges into darkness. Much of it relies on a tale well told, McPherson keeping the audience hanging on his every word as he gives us the story of a funeral gone wrong and a legacy left unwanted and unacknowledged.
Like most horror stories, it relies on the main character making terrible life decisions as the protagonist becomes more and more scared and less and less rational. Certain British horror boxes are ticked: remote Welsh villages, bad signal on the phone, voice notes, strange locals, and so on. None of that matters; the story is very good.
Scatter is a solid tale of terror, death and the terrible, terrible things that happen when people don’t talk about their mental health. Truly terrifying, classic horror. Do go and see it if you can, but make sure you have something a little less scary to do afterwards.
Tickets for the Edinburgh Fringe run of Scatter can be found here. Details on future performances can be found here.
