Delving into the heightened air of 1950s nuclear panic, Six Feet Under plays out the events that occur when a group of people head into a doomsday bunker to shelter from an unspecified apocalyptic event. Once locked inside, tensions rise as soon as they realise that the bunker isn’t nearly provisioned well enough, and that inner-group arguments and in-fighting could lead to disaster.
Exeter-based company Theatre With Teeth has put together the beginnings of a decent idea here, while the premise is reminiscent of classic 1950s American nuclear paranoia films, with a cast of fairly archetypal characters and a threadbare plot with not nearly enough scene-setting or character work beyond the most basic outline.
The issue with Six Feet Under is that we never really feel like we understand the characters or situation beneath the most surface level, ironic for a story both set and titled as being deeper. The elderly English scientist, the angry father, the cowed rebellious daughter, the goofy neighbour and a handful of other stock characters fill out the roster, but none of them expresses much life beneath their single basic trait.
As a result, it’s a play where you spend too much time waiting for the plot to begin, only for it to more or less drop at once during the last third, then tie itself up rather too quickly. The pacing just isn’t there, and that’s what ultimately sinks the piece, with important ideas dropped in suddenly with no warning and no time for them to gestate in the audience’s mind.
The acting is perfectly serviceable for a student production and some work has clearly gone into the costumes and the make-up as well as the general design. But this feels like an idea that’s been released half-baked, in need of more time spent on the script and more depth put into the personalities on display.