“Wright… is a delight as Amy. Here she gives another vibrant performance. And her comic timing is spot on“
“the play’s journey felt unexpected and led to a satisfying finale. Well worth catching“
Veronica Hannon
3.5 /5 stars
Breathing Corpses by English playwright Laura Wade is about random people discovering dead bodies. None have died peacefully in their sleep. It may sound intense, but it is also an exercise in pushing comedy into dark and surreal places. The Brits are known for it, and Wade does it very well.
In the first scene, we meet a teenage hotel attendant, Amy (Emma Wright), who finds a middle-aged man under a sheet, an apparent suicide by pills. We learn a young girl has been found under a bush in a park by a woman named Kate (Nisrine Amine) while walking her boyfriend’s dog. Then the smell from a self-storage unit alerts the manager, Jim (played on opening night script in hand by Gerard Caroll), who comes upon another gruesome crime scene. Nobody is living the glamourous life, so the tale of how these deaths are linked is somewhat of a downtrodden-but-deadly whodunnit.
Director Jess Davis draws touching performances from her actors, and the play is always involving, but I think it might be better served by a lighter, sharper execution. There is a lot more humour to be found in Wade’s script. And some performers do not grasp the class of the characters they are playing, and their social capital is clearly running beneath the story’s surface. That said, I got shudders down my spine.
Wright (who played the best Eliza I have ever seen in the 2019 New Theatre production of Pygmalion) is a delight as Amy. Here she gives another vibrant performance. And her comic timing is spot on, as she offers comfort to the lifeless body in the bed in the 20-minute opening monologue. Also, with a script in hand, Di Adams is terrific as Jim’s wife, Elaine, a lonely empty-nester unable to deal with her husband’s breakdown. Carroll is a nice contrast and, at times, arresting as the profoundly depressed spouse who feels the need to remove all the doors in his house. Both Adams and Carroll stepped in with one Zoom rehearsal under their belt when cast members Monica Sayers and Mark Langham were struck down with COVID. Both are so professional I did not clock their highlighted scripts until well into their first scene together.
Amine and Zelman Cressey-Gladwin, as her live-in boyfriend Ben, tackle the most challenging scene. Playing deeply unlikeable characters – it must be said written with little motivation – they still manage to define the relationship. And this coupledom has nothing to do with tenderness. Joshua Shediak also makes an impression as the uncomplicated Ray, and Xavier Coy has a nice turn as the creepy charmer, Charlie.
The tension could build a bit more within Kate Beere’s set, and more risks could have been taken, but the play’s journey felt unexpected and led to a satisfying finale. Well worth catching.
Veronica Hannon, Theatre Now
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