Chris Hogg attended Earth Teeth at the Brighton Dome Studio Theatre on May 4
The thrill of seeing new writing on stage is witnessing a playwright grapple boldly, with the ultimate questions of our time. What do we do about life now? The best plays hit these questions back at us like a Rafael Nadal forehand fast, precise, uncompromising. That’s
exactly what Sarah Leaver achieves with ThirdSpace Theatre’s Earth Teeth, which played at the Brighton Dome Studio Theatre as part of Brighton Festival.
Leaver’s play tackles two searing moral quandaries of our age: What are you willing to give
so that people you have never met may live? And what do you do when faced with the thought of your own extinction? These questions swirl at the heart of this environmental, existential HOWL of a drama.
Set on the final day of a protest encampment, Earth Teeth takes place in a world teetering on
the edge. Nature here is no longer a nurturing “Mother Earth” figure—it’s something darker,
stranger. A creeping mycelium network of fungi pulses beneath the surface, offering unity,
perhaps survival—but always at a price. The tone is Picnic at Hanging Rock meets folk
horror, with a dash of teenage apocalypse.
Having seen the production in an earlier form, it’s thrilling to witness how it’s evolved. The
current staging boasts a larger ensemble of 18 young performers, deeper characterisation, and more immersive design work—from Giles Thacker’s eerie projections to Jules Deering’s
atmospheric lighting. The finale now lands with greater emotional weight, although the
increased complexity occasionally muddies the clean horror trajectory that made the earlier
version so direct.
Director Tanushka Marah has long been a master of unleashing the wild, Maenadic energy of
teenagers—that raw force of truth, rage, and passion that, if left unchanneled, can erupt into
chaos. Earth Teeth rides that wave. The ensemble’s performances are electric: full of banter,
wit, and grief in equal measure. There’s not a weak link among them. Each actor steps into
the darkness and emerges changed, as does the audience.
You can’t slip a piece of paper between the quality of the humour and the weight of the
despair. And underneath it all, the play whispers a terrible, unanswerable question: how much
blood would you spill to save strangers?
Earth Teeth is an urgent, myth-soaked ritual for our burning world—one that forces us to
listen to the young and asks what price we are willing to pay to give them a future.
Chris gives Earth Teeth five stars 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
ThirdSpace Theatre: https://thirdspacetheatre.co.uk/
