This fortuitously topical black comedy tackles head on a subject that remains taboo for many: suicide.
Ageing artist Virgie can no longer holder a brush and wants to leave her life at a time of her choosing, and so invites her unwitting family and friends to celebrate her 84th birthday only to announce it is also the day she intends to die.
They react with anger, shock, and disbelief, and we eavesdrop on their conversations as their own lives and relationships are replayed, mixing blisteringly funny lines with moments of profundity.
Susan Newstead as Virgie drives the action with a remarkable performance: waspish, caustic, and cruel as she debates with her daughter Haydn (Mandy Kiley); then by turns subtle and subdued, and heart-achingly passionate, as the plot progresses. It is a captivating watch.
Kiley excels too, running through a wide gamut of emotions (and a steady succession of roll-ups) as she struggles to cope with her mother’s behaviour – both past and present.
There is solid support from Jane Boor and Kevin Oelrichs as Virgie’s friends – Oelrichs is particularly entertaingly over the top in his hand-sawing when his actor character reads from a play – and Glenda Gardiner as her frumpy (at first) former headmistress sister Glenda Gardiner. Her elevation to the House of Lords, via an unspecified role at school inspectors Ofsted, allows playwright April de Angelis some room for politics. Popular culture gets a ribbing too; I particularly enjoyed a jab at celebrity travelogues.
Ian Shephard has a dream cameo as taxi driver Roy, drawn into the domestic chaos and delightfully bemused by the strange situation he finds himself in. John Turpenny and Sarah Haines complete the cast.
With an assisted dying bill currently before Parliament, the Sewell Barn has unexpectedly tapped into a very topical issue and it is one dealt with deftly by the play. Perspectives shift with the unfolding action, giving plenty of provocation among the very dark, but very funny, comic lines.
- After Electra is at Sewell Barn Theatre, Norwich until 30 November 2024.
