An apparently welcoming hand pulls me through the door. Before I can scream, I'm blindfolded and spun around. The darkness is complete. I can just make out pinpricks of light. Sinister whisperings echo in my ear; someone strokes my arm. I'm moved around, giddy and disorientated. This is the brilliant start to Belt Up Theatre's version of Kafka's novella about Josef K, a man whose world is turned upside-down when he is accused of a nameless crime and must prove his innocence. The audience's physical disorientation matches Josef K's rising panic as he finds himself in a world that is simultaneously familiar and entirely unrecognisable.
One of the great pleasures of the fringe is catching the whiff of real promise. I missed Belt Up's award-winning season last year, but the company is back with The Tartuffe, The Trial and a series of find-them-if-you-can secret shows that all prove that this student company is no one-hit wonder.
The Trial has many flaws – it is messy, frenetic, a little in love with its own virtuosity, and the white-faced actors and physical work looks a trifle dated. But who cares, because it is also exhilarating, ambitious and manipulates sound, space and the audience with real verve.
It doesn't so much inhabit the venue as haunt it, as if what you are witnessing is a terrifying vision conjured from your own warped imagination. Even the way you are moved around the playing area makes it feel as if you are on a labyrinthine journey from which there is no escape. It doesn't all work, but there are moments of real potency. As you race for the door, you must step over the prone body of Josef K, lying in the darkness with his hand outstretched towards the light.
