I’ll Be Back is a one-woman show, written and performed by Justine Malone, creatively reimagining The Terminator through a distinctly British lens, swapping Hollywood’s glamorous Los Angeles for the somewhat unspectacular Brierley Hill, Dudley, writes Frankie Jenner.
The Glitch’s basement venue perfectly sets the stage, where we first meet Malone’s character deep in the labs of Cyberdyne Systems, embarking on a quest to find her brother, who went missing just days before the fatal Judgement Day.
Whilst Sarah Connor, the iconic female protagonist of The Terminator franchise, fought for humanity’s resistance against the backdrop of Los Angeles’ neon-lit cityscape, Malone’s character was not so fortunate, instead being transported from Cyberdyne’s labs to a damp multi storey car park in Brierley Hill, Dudley in 1997. Her first reaction to the old shopping centre is delightfully mundane: “it’s still got the monorail that connected BHS to Debenhams.”
Malone follows a trail of neon lights and low thumping bass, leading her to Dudley’s unique nighttime offering: the Technoir Bar. In a bid to fit in with Dudley’s eclectic partygoers, Malone tries to put on a leather jacket, but doesn’t quite know how to do so with her robotic arms. The resulting scene feels like a dance between the jacket and her cybernetic limbs, making for an impressively choreographed flow, where sharp, jerky, isolated movements mimic a mechanical robot. Punctuated by the background boom of ’90s electronic tunes and flashing lights, the sound and light design by Nina Moran is playful and adds necessary layering and rhythm throughout the 60-minutes.
The show’s climax involves a race against time to prevent Judgement Day, complete with terminators, grenades, a bunch of what she describes as “dweebs” that she finds in a basement war room (surrounded by fizzy pop cans and packets of crisps) and a desperate attempt to break into Cyberdyne Systems’ mainframe. All while Clippy—yes, that Clippy, Microsoft Office’s paperclip-shaped virtual assistant from Office 97—offers unhelpfully cheerful commentary throughout her mission, at one point announcing “I’ve just finished formatting your CV” as chaos erupts around her.
If you came of age in the ’90s and are familiar with references from The Terminator franchise, this show will surely have you hooked. Armed with some flashing lights, a projector and a couple of props, Malone has created a playful and assuredly geeky spin off.
