Death Belles – Old Red Lion Theatre, Angel

Writer: Annie Power
Director: Penny Gkritzapi

Reviewer: Christine Stanton

“Quality Quartet“

3.5 / 5

With petals strewn across the floor, blood red colouring filling vases of flowers and a spotlight, four women are ready to unburden themselves with a confessional monologue, each with an unsettling undertone.

For those who love a spooky, twisty storyline, Death Belles will be right up your street. The four stories aren’t connected, and there is very minimal set or costumes, so the focus remains on traditional storytelling to create the unnerving atmosphere that successfully fills the room with each monologue. The individual tales range in length – the opening story ‘All That Remains’ being the longest at around 25 minutes long. Some reshuffling of the stories and having the longest monologue in the middle could really help neaten the overall production and balance out the pacing of each narrative better.

Each tale is written by Annie Power, so have a similar thread of intrigue and anticipation running through them, before the impactful final scenes. Outside of this, they each have slightly different themes – ‘The Prophecy’ performed by Harriet Main, focuses on the supernatural, or is it just paranoia? Main’s depiction of the overworked detective, desperate to stop the gruesome child murders that have plagued her local town is captivating, leaving you second guessing throughout. ‘All That Remains’ with Niamh O’Donnell, has a traditional folklore approach, where a storm results in a community steeped in tradition band together to ensure that they can weather anything else that comes their way in future. O’Donnell builds suspension well and recites her long monologue flawlessly. ‘Faulty’ is a brilliantly sharp, snappy story from George Bird, who plays a confused teenager in the relentless search of answers about her family. It’s engaging and intriguing, Bird’s personable character depiction is immediately inviting.

The final offering – ‘Threshold’ performed by Finella Waddilove was my personal favourite – Waddilove portrays the raw emotions of a grieving mother fantastically, her desperation for truth rousing and energising. The final moments will literally have you completely hooked and gasping in shock, an excellently dark story to end on in this quality quartet of horror.

Runs until 21st October 2025