**** (4 stars)
“An excellent catalyst”
It’s an interesting title…I somehow feel it should be Before Party, since the party is arranged by Vivienne Blackwood to precede her death – a sort of pre-wake, perhaps?
Ostensibly a celebration of her eightieth birthday, the arriving family members are surprised not to find a house full of thespians, celebrities, and Beautiful People – Vivienne was a notable actress in her day and threw the most wonderful parties, darling…
But no. It’s only for the family – son Geoff, daughter Lily, granddaughter Sasha and grandson James, who comes with his partner, popular singer Cass. The family are bewildered by the lack of pizazz: they are even more at a loss when Vivienne announces that, rather than a birthday celebration, the evening is to be a celebration of her entire life: she is going to die in the morning. At first there are protestations – of course you’re not going to die – but when Death Doctor Lesley reads out the series of questions she’ll be asking again in the morning, the realisation that Vivienne is planning an Assisted Death slowly dawns on her family.
Cue an outpouring of a mixture of emotions – anger, outrage, horror – but where is the sorrow? Almost all these emotions are self-centred – how can you do this to me??? You can’t do this, get a lawyer… You’ve gone mad, get a doctor…. You’ve been manipulated into this by Carol [Geoff’s first wife, inexplicably also present – he’s on his third or fourth wife by now]…. Geoff’s furious that he’s going to lose the family house, Lily desperately tries to get Viv to repent for the many sins of her life, James can only cry, Sasha’s wrapped up in her own problems, and Cass isn’t really sure that she should be here at all. No-one seems to be thinking about what Vivienne may be feeling inside, whatever the front she’s putting on [and an acclaimed actress surely knows about putting on a front!]
There’s some glorious light relief when Vivienne’s ex-husband Bill, himself an actor and film star is summoned. The two ex-lovers snap and crackle at each other in the sparklingly witty and barbed dialogue between Beatrice and Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing. There’s a delightfully drunken dinner, which consists solely of highly expensive alcohol – which itself brings protests that Viv has been dry for years: what, do you think it’s going to kill me? Viv is extremely witty – but we also see that the alcohol makes her vicious rather than vivacious…
Vivienne is mostly centre-stage; but encounters between different family members sheds a harsh light on each person and their relationships with each other. There’s a lot of protestation about ‘but this is a family matter’ with very little indication that any family member cares very much about the others. They’re more concerned about what they perceive to be unfair treatment, often going back many years – all except Lily, who is convinced that God loves her and she is the only person present who knows what is right.
After Party is an excellent catalyst for all the discussions one needs to have, but which so rarely take place, about death, dying and assisted dying, the dying person and those who are left behind to mourn them. It also shines the spotlight on the greed and selfishness that permeate so many relationships of all kinds, not just the most intimate ones.
An excellent cast create some very real personalities – very few of them likeable but all very plausible. There are some good jokes, some badly gruesome ones, some excellent music [especially The Mother From Hell – though I wished I could hear the words more clearly] and some delightful bits of thespianism. There are shocks and predictable bits, touching moments and ones where I could cheerfully have slapped someone, more Shakespeare, a bit of Mark Twain, the prayer of St Francis, and a little bit of Cabaret.
Morna Young has written a good piece which hopefully will get audiences reflecting on life, death and everything in between – Mark Twain again The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. Were any of the characters on stage, apart from Vivienne herself, so afraid of life that they never really managed to live? Will Vivienne’s death make any difference to them? We can but hope so.
After Party, The Fringe Review, Traverse 1 @ Traverser Theatre, Venue 15, Runs until 30th August for more information go to: After Party | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
