Originally published on Theatre Thoughts. Find the original article here.

Theatre Thoughts Editor’s Note:
The production on this evening featured actors that had received the script that morning, with their first time performing the scenes for any kind of audience. They’d had less than 30mins in the theatre with the Director of Breathing Corpses. The two previous shows including the show’s opening night had different actors all together in those roles (also on book at short notice). [For this reason] You will see some lack of detail in this review.

In London, three people are connected by a most disturbing discovery. Amy, a hotel cleaner discovers her second dead body while on the job. Jim is spiralling into post-traumatic depression after discovering a dismembered body in one of the storage units he hires out. Kate constantly lashes out violently at her boyfriend and his dog after stumbling across a body on a morning walk. So begins Breathing Corpses by Laura Wade, a story about the many different emotions that we experience when confronted with death.

The show opens with a dead man in a hotel room. Amy, played by Emma Wright, delivers an opening monologue – just her with that dead man.  Jim was played by Nicholas Papademetriou, his wife Elaine by Linda Nicholls-Gidley, and their employee Ray by Joshua Shediak (Nicholas and Linda read from scripts due to the usual actors being in isolation). There were flashes of truth with aspects of humour on their faces once they realised the magnitude of finding the body.

We were then introduced to Kate played by Nisrine Amin and her boyfriend Ben played by Zelman Cressey-Garldwin who are in constant conflict with one another. Kate gave a most theatrical and somewhat aggressive performance with sustained tension between boyfriend Ben. This was a much-needed hit of energy that was perfectly placed within the middle of the production. The two gave an energetic performance that realistically demonstrated the trauma and coping mechanisms we might experience when faced with death.

In the closing scenes we met Charlie played by Xavier Coy. A new guest in the hotel who seems nice enough, but with hidden depths. He flirted with the rather innocent hotel cleaner Amy, but this became something more sinister as the story unfolded.

This production gives insight into how people cope with death and strangers connected through a series of disturbing events. A pleasing production that would reach its full potential with the full cast and minor script tweaks.

Originally published on Theatre Thoughts. Find the original article here.