There’s a sense of anticipation that comes with being led down down into the Old Police Cells underneath Brighton Town Hall. The history of this place, the old brickwork, the windowless subterranean world; the echoey acoustics and the dusty, musty smells. This atmospheric space is the venue for Spun Glass Theatre’s production You Left Me in the Dark.

Once down in the Cells, I am confused as to where to put my attention. I want to take in the ambience of the space, yet there’s a woman sitting in the corner, and a female voice coming from another room, and a TV set showing footage to do with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Moment by moment I become immersed in what appears to be a vision of 1980s Britain inhabited by two characters from Chekhov’s The Seagull, Nina and Masha.

Marie Rabe as Nina, and Eva Savage as Masha give enjoyable performances, especially the energetically twitchy legged and hopeful Nina. I enjoyed the abandoned Masha’s ‘love’ speech. Yet as an audience member the narrow staging of the space and being eye level with the performers felt awkward. A lot of the design and dialogue confused me. Sound from the monitor and Nina’s voice, happening concurrently, were difficult to hear. Nina chats with Masha, whilst folding up CND leaflets about having a smoothie in a cafe, with semolina (spiralina) in it. That feels and sounds very contemporary. Yet isn’t this the late 70s or 80s? Are they ghosts lodged in a time warp, forever cursed with painfully melancholic yearnings for Konstantin? I wasn’t sure what was going on, or what I should feel or where I was supposed to be. There are bottles on the shelves. Is this a fallout shelter? Yet the TV set and CD player are very last decade. The Old Police cells are so atmospheric, and the performances are beguiling, yet all in all I was the one left in the dark as to quite what was going on, other than unrequited love and angst and being stuck in a perpetual twilight. CND? The Police Cells? Eric Satie piano music? I left with questions as to what the staging added to the story of The Seagull, and what The Seagull added to the subject of the CND.