Living With the Dead
★★★☆☆ Thoughtful
Augustine United Church: Fri 25/Sat 26 April 2025
Review by Rebecca Mahar
Not So Nice! Theatre Company’s latest offering, Living With the Dead by Cosette Bolt at the Augustine United Church, confronts the reality of death in its many forms, reflecting on its sameness.
Set in Storms Funeral Home and Crematorium, where six people with diverse stories have ended up, Living With the Dead offers each of them the time and the space to relive a moment from their unique lives,
The Cast of Living with the Dead
Under Matthew Attwood’s direction the production certainly aligns with Not So Nice!’s mission to “create performances that challenge audiences, leaving them with more than just a polite ‘oh, that was nice’.”
From its setting, peeking behind the curtain of a place and at professions often considered taboo, to the varied stories behind each of the deceased, Living With the Dead is designed to spark conversation and reflection on one of the most uncomfortable aspects of human existence: its demise.
The play opens at the beginning of a routine day at Storms, with Kris (Grace Ava Baker) getting to work on that day’s batch of cremations, like a to-do list at any other job. That day’s dead are arrayed around the sides of the stage, seated as if in a waiting room, and when Kris calls each of their names they reanimate, playing out a moment from near the end of their lives.
pattern
At first a pattern seems to establish itself, with Kris embodying a person inside of the deceased’s life as these moments play out: first the granddaughter of Mrs. Sparrow (Irena Komunjer) and then the younger sibling of Patch (Emily Mahi’ai). Once these recollections have reached their conclusion, Kris guides the person offstage and then, with a change of lighting, returns to the present with an article of their clothing, cremation complete.
Emily Mahi’ai (Patch) and Grace Baker (Kris). Pic: Matthew Attwood
This pattern breaks when the deceased Katrina (Isabella Velarde) and Sandy (Alyssa Munro) speak directly to Kris, narrating and explaining their own stories, aware that they have died. Meanwhile Par (Erin Frances Speirs) only appears in passing, looking for someone, unable to remember who they are, and speaks to Kris despite their name not being called.
Storms in the present is returned to, intermittently, when Kris is joined by manager Evans (Chris Veteri). They converse about work and life, and Evans repeatedly wonders why Kris wants to work in a place like this. One of many questions the play provokes that go unanswered.
Bolt’s script is thoughtful. A provocative exploration of the last moments of those who all end up on the same table, regardless of who or what they were before. However, it cries out for either further development into a full-length play, or greater refinement of its current short form.
unfinished thoughts
There are too many unfinished thoughts, avenues for speculation, details that go unexplored, and unanswered questions for it to be fully satisfying as currently written.
Can Kris see and speak with the dead, really, and is that why she wants to work here? Are the deceased all victims of the storms and other mass casualty events from which footage periodically plays on the onstage TV screen?
Why the emphasis on these events if not, and if so how did people from different years all end up here on the same day? Why does Kris become part of some stories and not others? Why are some of the dead aware of her, and others not? Why do Par and Patch not remember each other? Has Evans been dead the whole time? The list goes on.
The ensemble of Living with the Dead from Not so Nice!. Pic: Matthew Attwood
Not everything needs to be explained, or all the questions answered; like the afterlife it precedes, this feels like a play that ought to leave its audience wondering to some degree, unsure if they have all the answers. However the inconsistencies in the play’s dramatic world are simply too many in its current form; the questions it creates overwhelm the messages it works to convey.
The performances given by the ensemble of Living With the Dead are exceptional. Each cast member delivers a fully realised, beautifully detailed rendition of their named characters, as well as filling in the secondary and tertiary characters of each decedent’s story.
The time spent with each of the deceased varies, but none of them feel any less real for the brevity of their moment in the spotlight. The ensemble is completed by Michael Stephens as Andrew, Sandy’s father, the only living visitor to Storms who likewise fills his few moments onstage with deep humanity.
open vulnerability
As Kris, Baker grounds the play, opening and holding the space for each of the deceased to have their final words; while also struggling with the realities of her occupation, such as the need to care for an infant who has passed, and cannot speak for themselves. Baker’s performance captures to complexity of Kris’s life with open vulnerability, inviting the audience into her world, where death is both routine and painfully individual.
Well directed, well-acted, and with an excellent design (also by Baker) that integrates the unique features of the Studio at Augustine’s, Living with the Dead is well worth the watch. With any luck it will reappear in the future after its current limited run — and in the meantime, any show written by Bolt or produced by Not So Nice! is one to get in your diary.
Running time: One hour and 30 minutes (no interval)
Augustine United Church (Studio), 41 George IV Bridge EH1 1EL
Fri 25 – Sat 26 April 2025
Evenings: 7:30pm Fri/Sat, Sat matinee: 2:30pm.
Run ended.
Not so Nice Website: www.notsonice.co.uk.
Facebook: @NotSoNiceUK.
Instagram: @notsoniceuk.
Chris Veteri (Evans) and Grace Baker (Kris). Pic: Matthew Attwood
ENDS
