A group of random people meets every Tuesday. The only thing they have in common is they are all dying. Since they don’t have to skirt around the C word here to cater for other people’s awkwardness, they can each be as open and honest as they want about the effects of the illness now in control of their lives.
Sitting in on a support group for patients with terminal illness would probably not be everyone’s first choice of fly-on-the-wall experience. However, this play, based on real notes made over ten years by a hospice social worker who led such groups, illuminated what it’s really like to live with dying.
The nine characters are fictional, created to embody the themes which emerged out of the notes. Young Josie denies her own fate right to the end. Margaret tends to her husband who is also dying of the disease, and keeps him in the dark about the fact she suffers too.
Importantly, this was a lesson in how not to respond to one who suffers. “No one tells me their good news any more,” said Catherine – yet even Laura, the social worker, keeps her pregnancy secret until she can hide the fact no longer.
Brighton and Sussex Medical School Theatre did a good job with little resources – all profits are designated for The Martlets Hospice. Sporadic recitation of poems describing death reminded us of the dark shadow over the characters, and left room for them to be light-hearted at times.
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