The Black Curtain

Duntown is sizzling in a heatwave, and Frank Harmless faces a tough choice. Led by lust into a nightmare state of paranoia, betrayal and murder, Frank stumbles into greedy journalists, secret agents, and a duplicitous femme fatale. Angel Exit conjure this seedy underworld with a trench-coated chorus, a cracking hard-boiled script and an original electro-jazz score.

Inspired by classic film noirs such as Double Indemnity, with language echoing Raymond Chandler and a narrative influenced by contemporary news stories, Angel Exit weave a web of intrigue which is at once glamorously removed from our reality but also frighteningly close.

The Black Curtain previewed at The Brewhouse as part of the Westival in July 2007, and following this we were invited to further develop the show by Le Preau Theatre, Normandy, under the PNR rural touring scheme. After a series of visits to Normandy in which we met with the local community, we returned to France in March 2008 to rehearse and tour the production to venues within rural communities. Our UK tour commenced at The Brewhouse and during April and May we performed at 13 venues including Byre Theatre, St Andrews, the Udderbelly at the Brighton Fringe Festival, The Theatre, Chipping Norton, Portsmouth New Theatre Royal, and Jacksons Lane in London.

The Black Curtain was directed by Tamsin Fessey with original music by Tom Ball; stage management and set design by Matthew Lewellyn Smith. It was devised and performed by the company: Jonathan Dunstan, Tamsin Fessey, Lynne Forbes, John Helier (2008) and David Lockwood, Simon Norbury (2007).