20b Thanet Road

A reflection on grief with a surreal twist, Chronic Insanity's “20b Thanet Road” is a thrilling #monologue with a dash of comedy that shows how nothing is more terrifying than the horrors of rising rent (#relatable)…🏚️😱

🎭Em (Kathleen O’Dougherty), a young artist whose career is stuck in traffic, moves back to Margate after discovering that she inherited a house from her estranged, mysteriously deceased mother...

Aiming to make a quick buck to boost her career, she decides to sell the joint & goes down a rabbit hole of renovations. As she flips her mum’s place, Em is dragged through a #funhouse of shifting doors, peeling walls & a bathroom that is most definitely trying to kill her…

📻O’Dougherty’s riveting storytelling reminds us of old-time radio shows & brings forward the stripped-back nature of listening to a spooky story in a #haunted space (heads-up, @orltheatre has a resident ghost...)

🎶As the #housecrisis story takes a turn into the uncanny, an electric guitar reaches us from the background with subtle tunes that pump up the volume when Em comes face to face with #TwilightZone phenomena, instantly making every turn 10X tenser…

The writing by O’Dougherty & Dough Deans succeeds in crafting intense moments of anticipation, hinting at dreadful revelations on the horizon.
However, although the narrative hints at Em's estranged mother as the heart of the matter, the mysterious circumstances of her demise remain unexplored, leaving a lingering enigma that feels like an untied end🤔

The climax falls a tad short of expectations, too, sputtering rather than igniting a dramatic bang. Instead, we are introduced to intriguing but somewhat overemphasized characters, like a perturbed stray cat & Em's clingy ex-girlfriend. These characters overshadow what could have been a deeper exploration of Em's relationship with herself, her aspirations, and her deceased mother...

Questions linger. But the real brilliance of “20B Thanet Road” is its impressive ability to keep the suspense🙀 The storytelling skillfully cultivates moments of great intrigue while the spellbinding #livemusic keeps us in a nail-biting state until the final note. WIP👷‍♂️

#grimfest