Review: LADYKILLER, VAULT Festival

A nightmarish scream anticipates the lights. A maid is standing over a bloodied corpse, fresh blood is soaking her arms up to her elbow and staining her crisp white apron.

She's in a frenzy, describing the accident. She was scared, trying to defend herself, she didn't do it on purpose. Except that she did. She switches off the acting and becomes her true self, a cruel, bloodthirsty psychopath who details the murder and takes her audience on a tour of her twisted mind.

Hannah McClean transforms into the charmingly crude and charismatic cleaning lady of the hotel. She craves control over people - which is the reason she enjoys her job so much - and daydreams of killing the guests. "Everybody does that" she assures the crowd, explaining how, however, the big difference between murderers and ordinary human beings is an underdeveloped frontal lobe.

She delineates the different types of killers, becoming a hyper child fascinated with death and blood. McClean is spectacular. She jumps in and out of states of mind, here being the frightened maid who's explaining the events to the police and there turning into the cold-blooded executioner of a rude customer.

Written by Madeline Gould and directed by Madelaine Moore, Ladykiller is a voyage into morality. They deliver the coexistence of the notions of destruction and nurture in women, presenting an atypical analysis of deviance and trauma dressed in black humour. The character is deliciously mean as she explains in-depth all the steps that lead her to who she is now.

The heart of the issue transpires gradually as she reveals her past, letting her public free to put the pieces together and to draw their own conclusions. Gould doesn't force her hand in doing so, writing a limber script that paints death under a curious light and soars in McClean's hands.

Ladykiller runs at VAULT Festival until 3 March.

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