From the moment young Kimiya Yektaa from Iran and Kristian Mulholland from London arrive on the doorstep, they find themselves on a rollercoaster ride to hell. Complex and vicious mind games, coupled with the exhaustive and relentless rigour of rehearsal, plus sleep deprivation, sweep them along to a chilling conclusion.

With Theatrestorm I have always pushed the boundaries of what is real and what is not; what is fiction and what is fact. Japanese director Shuji Terayama insisted that theatre must always leave at least forty per cent solely to the imagination of the audience. I wholeheartedly agree. I hate over-explanation. Theatre should be an experience. We are awash nowadays with ‘reality’; for many, the game-boy has replaced the book, and TV reality shows have replaced drama fiction. Theatre should be an escape from reality and naturalism through the never-ending realms of the imagination; a world which is lifted to a magical level of a constant dream-like form and not bound by the restrictions of the physical or mirror-image, but free to flow on into the world of the mind. Not only is the spectator drawn into the actor’s world as he follows the character untying the knots of understanding, but in that quest he is also drawn deep into his own labyrinth of imagination and may well find answers he never considered. That excites me, as the answers may well be as individual as the people experiencing the piece.

It was my early training in classical ballet and then being surrounded by the world of contemporary dance that so influenced my view of theatre. That, plus the inspiration of Lindsay Kemp and Steven Berkoff and the films of Pasoloni, Fellini and our own Ken Russell. I think I always want to make theatre filmic, to make the image as important as the word. I hope Shakespeare will forgive me and that having a cast of 13 will not antagonise the fates!

Teatr K draws its members from all over the world, so at times they will all speak different languages. What we fear most is the unknown, so when Kimiya and Kristian cannot comprehend what is being said to them, they are drawn further into confusion and fear; they become more susceptible. For Kornelius ‘rehearsal is the reality of performance’ and slowly the young couple are conditioned to conform to the rituals demanded by K.

The characters’ names all begin with K. Why? I’ll leave you to answer that.

Sit back, relax, open your mind and come into Kornelius’ world. Don’t be surprised if you recognise a few Faustian promises, slight reflections of Murnau’s Nosferatu, just a hint of Lewis Carroll and a final resonance with Countess Bathory. I promise by that time you will be on the edge of your seat.