Come Die With Us (Rating 3/5)
This one woman show, written and performed by Gillian Skye is about Laurel, a woman who does not realise she’s dead. The play begins with an interview for a job in a funeral home, and then moves through Lauren’s story told by Lauren, before a relative fills in the missing pieces about her death.
It is billed as a dark new comedy, but while the interview scene fits this description, the rest of the play doesn’t. There are some moments of humour in the opening of the middle section, where she talks about getting pregnant and the father of her child, that sit within tragi-comic territory, but after this the mood of the piece changes.
It becomes an introspective piece, with an overwhelming sense of sadness and tragedy as Laurel talks about a couple of unfortunate deaths and other disappointments. The closing section explains her death and adds to the sombre feeling.
It’s a well performed show, but it feels somewhat inconsequential and fails to live up to the description in the programme, which may add to a sense of disappointment for anyone seeing it in the belief that they will be watching a dark comedy.
Sweet Grassmarket, until 26 August
Leave a Reply