Lars von Trier’s film Dogville told its story of a female fugitive taking shelter with an insidious commune from within a dark, Brechtian soundstage. It’s only fitting, then, that Dusk, a French-language stage adaptation from Brazilian director Christiane Jatahy, uses the language of cinema to seduce and disturb its audience. A live camera feed projects onto a screen above the minimalist commune, and unsettling contradictions between the action on stage and screen quickly become clear.

The audience is addressed directly, often in English, which along with the characters filming their own drama is a necessary design of leader Tom’s ‘experiment’. If you ever get lost by the layers of metafiction in Dusk, you are certainly not alone, but there is a clear arc to the story with newcomer Graça becoming vulnerable to systems of exploitation, ostracisation, and eventual violence that everybody in this community is complicit in.

Jatahy grounds von Trier’s themes in her own specific political context, and clearly demonstrates a mastery of theatrical unease throughout the 90-minute play (half the length of Dogville). But ultimately, Dusk’s reliance on symbolic and subversive theatrical constructs, while crucial to how disarming fascism is to those wielding power, frustrates more than it reveals. 

Dusk, Lyceum Theatre, 6–8 August, 7.30pm, 7 August, 2.30pm.