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American writer William Styron is best known for his novel ‘Sophie’s Choice’ which was made into a movie starring Meryl Streep as Sophie. I still consider it her greatest performance in her peerless career. Amongst Styron’s other works he wrote the much acclaimed memoir, ‘Darkness Visible’ about his descent into depression and his near fatal night of ‘despair beyond despair’.
British writer Alice Birch’s award winning 2017 play ANATOMY OF A SUICIDE is a play that explores similar territory and also makes this terrible darkness acutely visible. The play was a sell out at the Old Fitz Theatre in 2019 and now is having a well deserved return season at the Seymour Centre.
Most of all the play adds to the whole discourse/debate around how big a component genetics plays in depression and mental illness.
In Birch’s play we follow the journeys of three women, Carol (mother), Anna (daughter) and Bonnie (granddaughter), each of whom have had struggles with profound mental illness.
The way the play is written is by the way of a theatrical triptych with Carol, Anna and Bonnie’s stories playing out, decades apart, yet at once, simultaneously. It is as if the stage is divided into three invisible sections with each woman’s stories and interactions being told on her ‘part’ of the stage.
It is tricky to describe, and tricky to watch, as our focus shifts between the characters, and we are always anxious that we might have missed some nuance. What makes it even more intricate is that the dialogues within the three stages intercut and overlap with each other.
It requires skilful acting with precision timing to make this work. And this is what we get from the leading three actresses and from the other actors who play the people who feature in their lives.
This is a very fine production by Shane Anthony. In his program note Anthony writes, ‘there is a massive duty of care in staging a play of this magnitude, on a topic of great fragility and vulnerability.’ The care taken by him, his creative team and cast come across so clearly and will be appreciated by audiences who come to see the show.
The play starts with us meeting Carol who has just survived a suicide attempt and is in conversation with her very rattled husband. Anna Housten gives a striking performance as Carol who spends the play barely coping, trying different things but unable to find contentment.
Anna Samson gives a heartrending performance as Anna who battles addiction.
Kate Skinner is stunning as Bonnie, the granddaughter who is trying to break the family pattern. A very bright woman, she is the head of a hospital emergency department. She struggles with demanding family members of patients. In her private life she is caught up in an acrimonious, dysfunctional relationship with the very demanding Jo (well played by Harriet Gordon-Anderson, who is best known for her role as Hamlet in a recent Bell Shakespeare production).
Danielle Catanzariti, Teale Howie, Guy O’Grady, James O’Connell, Jack Angwin, Alex Malone and Natalie Saleeba round out a very accomplished cast.
Anthony’s creative team comprised set designers Gus Murray and Shane Anthony (a very sleek, functional set), costume designer Siobhan Jeff O’Hanlan, lighting designer Morgan Moroney, composer Damien Lane and sound designer Nate Edmondson (what an edgy soundscape they have come up with!).
The playwright brings everything together with a startling ending. In the foyer after the show a few of us stayed around, talking about how the play had shaken us up, in awe of what we had just seen.
A co Sugary Rum Productions, Chopt Logic and Seymour Centre production Alice Birch’s b brilliant ANATOMY OF A SUICIDE is playing the Reginald Theatre at the Seymour Centre until Saturday 29th October 2022. Performance times Tuesdays to Fridays at 7.30pm and Saturdays at 2pm and 7.30pm.
Featured image
Harriet Goron-Anderson and Kate Skinner in ‘Anatomy Of A Suicide’. Production photography by Phil Erbacher
https://www.seymourcentre.com/event/anatomy-of-a-suicide/