Review: Dying For It at the Bridewell Theatre

Review by Marianthe Smart

Note: The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of RetoxMagazine.com

Review: Dying For It

Written by Moira Buffini
Directed by Robert Irvine
Performed by The Tower Theatre Company

Dying For It - Adapted from Nikolai Erdman's The Suicide

Nikolai Erdman's play The Suicide was banned in Russia and effectively ended his career in theatre with its very frank opinion of the Soviet government. Now with Buffini's adaption the play has found a new voice that, in her own words, has attempted to take the play out of censorship, to 'make the unsayable sayable'. A skilfully written script, Dying For It gives an individual wit to each character, coming together to create an incredibly enjoyable yet in the end poignant play. By the end of Dying For It Buffini definitely reminds us that suicide cannot be relinquished to farce. We are shocked out of our comfortable seat at a comedy with, 'Semyon is right, why live?' But do not worry, Buffini states that the play is a 'hopeful' one, not despairing, and the Tower Theatre Company reiterates this with their take on the play, currently running at the Bridewell Theatre.

So to the play itself: Semyon wants to end it all. It's Russia. It's the 20s. Life is, well, difficult, and no one displays this quite so bumblingly as Semyon (Justin Stahley). Out of work and sharing one blanket with his wife Masha (Emily Carmichael) in the tiny flat they share with his mother-in-law, Serafima (Sue Brody), Semyon decides to commit suicide - it's not even worth it to wear trousers anymore. But as humans and our nature do, people line up to take advantage of Seymon's decision, and make a statement of it. Of course, Semyon is transported by all of these people to make his suicide something more than having had enough of life, and being strung along by people like the amorous Kiki (Jennifer Guinn) helps too.

Semyon is indeed a rather ridiculous man, perhaps a tad too ridiculous in Tower Theatre Company's production. Stahley's slapstick and constant blundering about was distracting at times. Yet things improved in the second half when pretentious rival writers in the form of Aristarkh (John Irvine) and Viktor (Alexander Buckley) appeared and balanced out the 'silly' a bit.

But despite the slight over-bumbling, a lot of credit needs to be doled out for this impressive amateur production. Stahley's amazingly consistent energy and wonderfully malleable comic face were astounding – one of the hardest working actors I have ever seen on the amateur stage. The set also involved some great naturalistic details – a shawl hanging here, a desk with stacked books for a leg there, and a very dirty falling-apart wall. Yet the greatest triumph was how well the cast worked as an ensemble, Masha and Seymon's 'domestic' over black pudding was wonderful, and even with all twelve characters on stage at once there was never any stumbling or confusion of any kind – slick and snappy to the end with the supporting cast all shining far too much and many for me to even list them here, you would stop reading if I began making lists. Dying For It is a brilliant achievement, especially considering that it was the first play Robert Irvine has directed. I expect we shall be seeing much more of his work.

But I have to go back to Buffini and her script. With whiffs of our own defunct modern government systems – ask for a gun permit all you want, it's still in someone’s hand and it's still in your face – Buffini makes this play relevant socially as well as personally with moments such as Seymon's rousing 'I matter' speech. Crackling exchanges between lovers and enemies, cruel jokes revealing the nature of life and what it has made of these characters, Dying For It is wonderful, and the Tower Theatre Company stood up to that. With each performance that I see from this company I am more impressed; if you are reading, I expect to be blown away next time, especially if you choose to do another Moira Buffini play. So, no pressure.