A play about serious illness and the search for a cure might resonate in our times but also runs the risk of being too cheerlessly close to home. So this revival of Bryony Lavery’s feelgood death drama – as upbeat as a story about assisted suicide is going to get – performs its own miracle in its warmth, gusto and celebration of life and friendship.
Four friends take a road trip to Lourdes after discovering that June (Naana Agyei-Ampadu) has a secondary cancer that nothing short of a Christian miracle will cure. Directed by Tinuke Craig, it feels like an ode to theatre as well as life; all the characters are connected to the stage – June is a lighting designer, Leah (Jodie Jacobs) a prop maker, Joy (Ellie Piercy) an actor and Gash (Peter Caulfield) a drag artist with a tendency to burst into Judy Garland songs. Hannah Wolfe’s set is bare but for a keyboard and office chairs on wheels, rearranged as the actors conjure scenes.
At first it all feels too giddy. Snatches of songs are wedged into the drama and there is direct address with some cute meta reflections that become a little wearing. Meditative moments are tucked in amid the rambunctiousness. “Such a small life,” says June, who talks of perfect happiness as she smokes a cigarette in the sun. She is a compelling character, dryly witty even while navigating death and excellently played by Agyei-Ampadu, but she is also the most distant. “It’s really not that interesting – sickness,” she says, perhaps as an explanation. Yet we want more of her, and we also want her seriousness to leaven the madcap comedy.
The second part hits a different stride and gathers intensity alongside the humour once the hijinks of the Lourdes scenes are over. Even if the characters remain types, they interact wonderfully and bring sweet silliness and some good punchlines. “Dying is not just about you, you know,” says Joy to the dead boyfriend who won’t stop haunting her. It is momentary truths like this that light up the play.
Friendship is, for all its warmth, highly sentimentalised and the production has the light, easy watchability of a sitcom – this could be the final episode of Friends. But we cannot resent this schmaltz and the deathbed scene feels – oddly – like an antidote to death. It is all messy, imperfect, cheesy, too loud and gabbling but supremely lovable despite its flaws, or perhaps because of them – just like a lifelong friend.
At the Orange Tree theatre, London, until 7 August. Live-streamed on 22 and 23 July.
