A large, bright clock face looms over double doors, piercing the rough-hewn stone walls framing two sides of a bare stage (Neil Warmington’s sparse, effective gothic-institution design). Standing alone in a dim light, Alison (Bryony Corrigan, all bright innocence) introduces the action. Three years earlier, Alison was a trainee nurse nervously arriving for her first night shift on a male psychiatric ward at St Nicholas’s hospital in Gosforth. We jump back in time: about to enter the building, Alison notices a zigzag crack running down its facade. Barely have the doors closed behind her when on to the stage erupts a six-strong band fronted by Maddie (a belting Charlie Hardwick) singing Alright on the Night by Newcastle’s 1970s folk-rock greats Lindisfarne (Ray Laidlaw and Billy Mitchell, original Lindisfarne members, are the production’s musical directors and perform live).
In Paul Sirett’s new play, Alison’s experiences on this dark and stormy night are a realist-musical-fantastical blend of: the lyrics of Lindisfarne musician-composer, the late Alan Hull; the real-life experiences of psychiatric nursing that inspired them; the events of Edgar Allan Poe’s story The Fall of the House of Usher; and situations in 2015’s over-stretched NHS. The mix makes for a dizzying evocation of a mindscape, tautly managed by director Joe Douglas, vividly acted (Joe Caffrey’s staff nurse is especially powerful) and musically vibrant. If at times the shift into gothic horror feels off-key – close to exploiting psychiatric illness for dramatic effect – Alison’s concluding speech sheds a clear, bright light over all.
• This article was amended on 29 October 2018 to correct the name of Hardwick’s character – Maddie, not Maggie.
• Clear White Light is at Live theatre, Newcastle, until 10 November
