When you see the gang of teenagers who form a midnight coven in Maryam Hamidi’s punchy and poetic new play, you think of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Des Dillon’s Six Black Candles and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Young and volatile, these girls believe they have access to dark spiritual forces – and, as they dance and chant, you hear echoes of the mystery, the prejudice, even some of the comedy of those witchy dramas.
Because of the transitional age of the girls, Moonset also recalls the menstrual themes of Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and Kate Bush’s Strange Phenomena, carrying the suggestion that the monthly cycle is not just physical but supernatural. This is a play about intimacy, secrecy and esoteric female energy.
