The second production in Cork's Fringe Theatre Festival at the Granary is not one for those who suffer from fear of flying. Black Box by Jim North and Nick Walker of Talking Birds, Coventry (in co-production with Belgrade Theatre) is a fantasia on the theme of terror, the crowded terror of a crashing aircraft filled with people.
The electro-plated set is a cross between an autopsy room and a mausoleum of aviation as boxes are exhumed, dissected and stored; blacker still is the market for the pornography of death - the fading heartbeats trickling into pleasure that can be sold.
A fantasy, but some thread of coherence underlies Nick Walker's frenetic style of direction. A small and competent cast can't quite achieve that coherence, however, as sound and lighting effects overwhelm potential significance, not just at the end (which the script achieves with difficulty), but right through the presentation.