DEAD AND BREATHTAKING!
THE ALBANY, LONDON
DATES: 20 February - 3 March 2018
TIME: 7.30pm
PRICES: £14 (£10 concessions)
TICKETS: 020 8692 4446
http://www.thealbany.org.uk/event_detail/2203/Theatre/Dead-and-Breathing
DATES: 20 February - 3 March 2018
TIME: 7.30pm
PRICES: £14 (£10 concessions)
TICKETS: 020 8692 4446
http://www.thealbany.org.uk/event_detail/2203/Theatre/Dead-and-Breathing
Dead and Breathing - Review by Michelle Olley
The Albany (Deptford, London) 19 Feb - 3 March 2018
“Old age ain’t no place for sissies.” The much-memed Bette Davis’ quote - increasingly deployable with every passing year and crumbling knee-cap - would make a great strapline for this razor-sharp battle of the witty from award-winning New York playwright Chisa Hutchinson.
The two-hander tells the story of two American-southern women from different sides of the tracks - a spiky, rich widow who’s ‘had it up-to-here’ living with cancer and a warm-hearted, blue collar, Christian hospice nurse. But, as is often the case in life, the protagonists are more than the sum of their labels - and not all the labels are showing... |
The acting range on show here is just wonderful to watch. The strength and vulnerability exuded at different times along the story arc by both Lizan Mitchell as Carolyn and Kim Tatum as Veronika lift these characters up and away from the perils of campy caricature and keeps the story moving along when the script isn’t delivering one of its many zingers.
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Once Nurse Veronika’s fruity talk about former patients breaks the ice during a frosty bath-time, (resulting in a blazing barrage of bitchy badinage worthy of Hollywood’s Golden Age of Sassy Broads), Carolyn realises The Force is strong in this one and perks right up, as she begins scheming to manipulate her Lord-loving assistant into conspiring with her to achieve her suicidal deathwish.
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Sara Booth’s set exudes a classic Hollywood, rich old lady’s boudoir feel that director Rebecca Atkinson-Lord makes brilliant use of to keep the action moving - literally and emotionally.This is a production that shines with black girl magic, female wit and wisdom a la Grace and Frankie and just enough sprinkles of Grey Gardens crazy, Feud venom and John Waters’ gallows humour to stop it from ever getting remotely maudlin. I, for one, will be keeping an eye out for Chisa Hutchinson’s writing. Dead and Breathing’s killer.
Michelle Olley