Whose Life is it Anyway?
Location: Drama Barn
Director:Helen Fletcher and Carly Telford
Cast: Peki Brazier, Chrissy Leah, Mark Smith, Dan Sofaer, Eimar Nolan, Leo Amiel
Time: 7:30 p.m.
There are a few things in life which it seems very hard to make humorous. Take the tale of a quadriplegic woman contemplating suicide. Yet Brian Clark’s play Whose Life Is It Anyway? manages to do just that. The plight of Claire Harrison, a sculptor paralysed after a brutal car crash, is documented in a piece of theatre which manages to ask some potentially very awkward moral questions, while still remaining an entertaining piece of drama.
The drama barn’s normal black interior is a sea of white, amazingly transformed into Claire’s hospital room. Lying in a bed at the centre of the stage is Peki Brazier’s Claire. She remains still as we enter. She will stay this way for the entire production. While Carly Telford and Helen Fletcher’s production could easily be called an ensemble piece, Brazier’s turn as Claire stands out immediately. It’s not an easy role to play, that of an intelligent, witty woman, who the audience all emphasise with greatly come the end of the play, but whose death we could see would bring her great comfort. Brazier is supported by a large cast of drama barn veterans and new faces, all of whom perform competently. Cat Smith’s student nurse, the perfect foil to Claire’s cynicism stood out as a particular highlight, as did Dan Sofaer as Doctor Scott, a man torn between his personal feelings for Claire and his profession.
The play itself is hugely entertaining, with moments of comedy juxtaposed against human tragedy. There are a few moments in which the play seems to spread the moral message a little too thickly, such as when Leo Amiel’s jovial orderly suddenly wonders exactly how much money is being spent to keep Claire alive, or when Eimear Nolan as Claire’s solicitor reels off a list of ‘real life’ cases similar to that of Claire’s. Yet this aside, the play is certainly a worthy piece of theatre, which does manage to ask serious moral questions without preaching too much. And it is certainly a good way to spend a few hours this weekend.
