LAST EASTER. To 10 November.

Birmingham

LAST EASTER: Bryony Lavery.
Birmingham Rep: The Door.
Runs: 1h 35m, no interval till 10 November.
Review: Rod Dungate, 22 October 2007.

Another not-to-be-missed play from Bryony Lavery.
When I reviewed Bryony Lavery’s FROZEN in 1998 I said ‘It really is an extraordinary work’; here’s another one from her. Extraordinary, remarkable, funny, touching, truthful.

Lavery takes on two pretty big subjects in this play – one of which’ll get us in the end, one of which won’t. Death and God. Lavery combines her quirky (and often dark, certainly irreverent) humour with her, it would seem, boundless love of people with all our quirks; she binds these together with her dramatic and story-telling skills. What unfolds is a moving, sometimes breathless, journey of someone speeding to ultimate death.

But don’t think this is a tragic play. Her characters work in performing arts and their generous love for each other ensures, ultimately, the play is life-affirming. June, the dying character, is a lighting designer; this enables Ms Lavery to bring even this theatrical device within the power of her mighty word-processor. June, early in the play conjures a religious painting; ‘’The Taking of Christ’ by Caravaggio arrives before her,’ Lavery’s writing is this simple, her command of theatricality is this breathtaking. The picture is conjured up as June (lighting designer) recreates Caravaggio’s lighting (Ben Omerod is Lighting Designer.)

And the story . . . June, lighting designer, discovers she has secondary cancer – she has previously had one breast removed. Her friends take her on holiday, take her to Lourdes for a miracle (though none ‘believes’.) Here, Lavery’s writing scales heights of great humanity; ‘All my dead people have come / with me . . . my mother, Terry, / Jules . . . Pedro . . . / Six-pack Stephen . . . / Camp David.’ Descends great troughs of reality – go and find out!

The team of four actors is terrific. They rocket themselves through emotions, connecting directly with each other and us, dragging us into their messy, painful, loving world. Douglas Hodge directs with great skill; the pace is fast but detail is never sacrificed.

Yes, yes, yes.

June: Janet Dibley
Gash: Peter Polycarpou
Leah: Caroline Faber
Joy: Christine Kavanagh

Director: Douglas Hodge
Designer: Soutra Gilmour
Lighting: Ben Ormerod

2007-10-22 23:55:37