In American playwright Don DeLillo’s ‘Love-Lies-Bleeding’ Alex Macklin’s family are at a crossroads. Macklin has lived his life fiercely independently. Now at 70 he is a ‘vegetable’, after being struck down by two strokes.
Three people in his family will decide Alex’s fate. His ex-wife Toinette and his son Sean look at euthenasia and want him to end his life with dignity and not in a drip-fed limbo nightmare. His young wife, Lia, is detemined to allow him a natural death. Lia knows Alex is tenacious, like the exotic plants that he loved- like the plant love-lies-bleeding.
‘Love Lies Bleeding’ was a play that I could relate to on a very personal level. Some years ago, an Auntie of mine underwent heart surgery after which she had a massive, debilitating stroke which left her bed-bound,in a vegetative state, in an inner city nursing home. This broke the collective family’s heart. In the end, the decision was made that that were would be no further attempts to prolong her life. If she became ill, which inevitably would happen, nature would be allowed to run its course.
As the play unfolded I felt like I was watching the action on stage in slow motion; all the angst, the oscillating emotions, the procrastinations. The play is staged powerfully. Centre stage, set against the backdrop of a New Mexico desert setting, Alex (Shaun Goss) sits in a vegetative state in a chair, tied to a drip. Alex has had a rich life, becoming a famous artist and having been married four times.
In flashbacks, scenes from Alex’s life are revisited with Max Cullen playing the younger Alex. He comes across as such a bright, vibrant, passionate man. It makes it so obvious why Toinette, Sean and Lia find Alex’s current situation so difficult and heartbreaking.
DeLillo bookends the play with a dramatic refrain. Close to the play’s start there is the story of an elderly man who had died whilst on a carriage of a New York commuter train, and it took forever for anyone to notice! At the play’s end, the story is refered to again, and mention is made that it was revealed that this man was once quite a famous person. It was such a haunting anecdote, saying so much about urban loneliness and isolation.
DeLillo’s play was brought to life by a strong cast. Max Cullen’s portrait of the charismatic younger Alex was a moving one. Paula Arundell played Alex’s young wife Lia still believing that Alex’s spirit still burned bright in his comatose body. Benjamin Winspear played the difficult role of son Sean, uncompromising, determined to put an end to the situation, and supported by a wealth of material from the internet. Robyn Nevin played Alex’s older wife, Toinette, in typical Robyn Nevin fashion. Shaun Goss was amazing in the role of the old Alex Macklin, sitting in the chair on stage for 100 minutes, without being able to move! i didn’t see him move once, and was convinced that he was not a live actor but rather a stage dummy!
Lee Lewis’s directed the play with a tight rein, and ‘Loev Lies Bleeding’ ran straight through fro 100 minutes. His creative team supported him well. Set designer Fiona Crombie’s stage was filled with sand and bare apart from a couch and two chairs. The stage was very brightly and starkly lit by Luiz Pampolha. Paul Charlier’s poignant score added to the play’s atmosphere.