LIGHTS OUT
All that’s certain is that everyone dies in the dark
A Merely Roleplayers and Blackshaw Theatre Company production for the London Horror Festival 2021
No one knows what happened to the Blackout Four - only that none of them survived that final dark night. Merely Roleplayers hope to reconstruct the events of that night, live on stage.
Part seance, part crime scene reconstruction, part roleplaying game, Lights Out is a fight against fate to seize a glimmer of hope - before the dark draws in.
Experience Lights Out
Listen to the premiere of Lights Out, recorded live at the Pleasance Theatre, London, on Sunday 24 October 2021.
Lights Out contains death, darkness and sudden loud sounds.
Interested in staging Lights Out?
Performing for free or for a good cause? Please credit Matt Boothman as the author of the rules and Foggy Outline as the publisher.
Performing for profit? Please contact Matt.
“Lights Out is thrillingly unconventional, sits in a sweet spot of tension and comedy, and is absolutely worth your time”
Reconstructing an event obscured by time
Through performance
Our cast of expert character actors have spent an extensive development period studying everything we know about the Blackout Four. In Lights Out, each performer takes on the role of one of the four. Narrating by candlelight, they use their research and understanding to truthfully reconstruct the actions and emotions of these four doomed souls on their final night.
Through divination
Understanding the Blackout Four as characters can tell us what they would have done, but not what the outcome would have been. The perfomer might be sure they would have chosen to investigate a mysterious trapdoor, but would it have opened? What might they have found underneath? It’s at this point that we must turn to the Tarot. These mystical cards, used throughout the ages to read the future and the truth of people’s hearts, fill in the final missing pieces of our reconstruction.
The original cast
Natalie Winter
Natalie is an actor, voice over performer and director, also specialised in sword fighting!
Natalie is an avid gamer, and regularly appears as a player on the Merely Roleplayers podcast and Roll Together's Dungeons and Dragons shows on Twitch and YouTube.
You find out more about her work at nataliewinter.co.uk and raggedfoils.co.uk
Alexander Pankhurst
Instagram: @apankhurst87 | Twitter: @APankhurst
Alexander studied Drama and Theatre Studies at Royal Holloway University of London, is a long time collaborator with Merely Roleplayers and Blackshaw Theatre and is thrilled to be taking part in this. He is also a standup comic.
Helen Stratton
Helen is more frequently found behind a desk than on a stage, working in higher education. However, the Merely Roleplayers podcast and its sister company Blackshaw Theatre have given her many opportunities to be more creative, for which she is eternally grateful. This has included producing; presenting; and voicing the nation’s favourite gentlewoman detective in Some Treachery: A Miss McSkimming Mystery.
She also conducted many interviews for the Blackshaw Arts Hour, during which she infamously asked an awful lot of people if they ever feel like they have too many arms. She’s not been asked back.
Richard Stratton
Richard studied Theatre Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is a founding member of Blackshaw Theatre, with whom he has performed in and written numerous plays, including Gormenghast: Titus Groan, Alice in Wonderland, Some Treachery: A Miss McSkimming Mystery, and Trouble at Sea: A Miss McSkimming Mystery.
Richard has been a regular cast member of the Merely Roleplayers podcast since its inception, and is excited to be bringing the show to the stage for the first time.
Matt Boothman
Matt is a writer, and the host of the Merely Roleplayers podcast.
His play Audience with the Ghost Finder was produced by Blackshaw Theatre Company at the London Horror Festival 2013.
Backstage
Development and rehearsal
Dramaturgy: Vikki Weston
Game development: Matt Boothman, Chris Starkey, Richard Stratton
Concept development: Matt Boothman, Chris Buxey, Alexander Pankhurst, Ellie Pitkin, Chris Starkey, Vikki Weston, Natalie Winter
Production
Tech and effects: Andrew Crane, Betty Smith
Press and promotion: Alexander Pankhurst, Violaine Brunelin, Ellie Pitkin, Matt Boothman
Production consultancy: Ellie Pitkin
Special thanks to: Katy Danbury
Acknowledgements
Lights Out is inspired in part by Ten Candles, a roleplaying game of tragic horror by Stephen Dewey of Cavalry Games.
With thanks to the London Horror Festival, the Pleasance Theatre, and the festival sponsors: The Scent Coven, Royal Ten Clothing, Dean of the Dead hot sauce, and Sonar Red Music.
About Merely Roleplayers
Merely Roleplayers is an improvised ensemble audio drama podcast - emphasis on the drama.
We tell a lot of different stories, with one thing in common: we’re always chasing maximum drama.
About Blackshaw Theatre Company
Blackshaw is a theatre production company, championing new writing and adaptations on stage and in audio.
We’re proud to work with an extensive network of artists and professionals in our South London homeland and beyond. Blackshaw and our whole network believe in embracing a wide range of disciplines, sharing knowledge, and supporting fellow theatre practitioners to create great work.
Lights Out is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.