‘Sorry for Your Loss’ is a play about five mildly twisted and slightly broken people who enjoy attending funerals. It is heavily indebted to Brechtian ideas and is exemplary in doing justice to them. These five are only known to us through their pseudonyms: Oak, Cherry, Steel, Wicker and Bamboo. Aptly named, they are characteristically coherent with their nominative coffin material. With each funeral that is attended, the drama turns a shade darker and its morality, murkier.
I’d rather not give out even a morsel of the plot. Tightly conceptualized, it stands the chance of crumbling with even one cat out of the bag and spoiling the ending. There is a very curious pattern that the play runs on. Plot points are interspersed with mock addiction-rehabilitation meetings wherein the five characters sit together and deliver a speech one by one. These are interesting devices to offer the audience a glimpse of character interiorities. Each meeting ends in a children’s game with the winner taking the stage for an extended monologue, their back story. The play keeps you on the edge of your seat as it unwraps itself layer by layer with each character adding to the jigsaw until you reach the end and the puzzle is solved.
Another stroke of brilliance is the breaking of the fourth wall – or rather the non-existence. From the very start, there was no stage, no actors and no play. You are as much a participant in the ensuing events as are Oak, Cherry, Steel, Wicker and Bamboo. You attend a funeral and mourn; you witness an accident; you are suspected of murder and perhaps even complicit in one! The actors effortlessly dissolve you into the drama and you can’t help but join them. I remember my fellow theatre-goers engaging in extempore conversations, playing along, nodding, denying, responding and reacting. The fact that we were given black frilled umbrellas to shield ourselves from the rain only pushed us deeper into the ghastly ambience.
Yet as the play integrates its audience into itself, it does not forget its identity. It retains its Brechtian artifice, dexterously balancing it with its realism. Despite such delicate treatment of technicalities, it falls short on two notes. Firstly, our five coffin materials, in the words of the great Urnie (another character), though “beautiful, unusual and photogenic” are, in essence, stock characters or “tropes.” The short labels that describe them on the play’s Instagram page are exactly what they are: walking clichés. Even their autobiographies fail to create original character complexities. Secondly, there are persistent moments of desperation throughout the play. More than once, it tries to be funny and falters. It gets frustrating when these attempts just keep on coming. Equally chronic is a dearth of pauses. Well timed silences and gaps, which the viewer seeks and anticipates, are missing. Abruptness is noticeable in uncomfortable shifts and transitions. It is easy to read the writing as hasty and lacking finesse.
It will be unjust of me to simply pillory the writing as a whole, for there are elements that must be commended. Apart from its polished consolidation of Brechtian influences, the writing is opulent with topical references and a stubborn naturalism. Formulaic characters are offered a kind of redemption in their lines; particular favorites of mine are Steel and Cherry. Oak’s monologue makes clever use of Shakespearean references, although her love for the Bard feels like an anomaly as it only ever comes up once, The juxtaposition of mundane everyday household expression with the grim morbid setting creates a pivotal tension. Children’s games are a specially poignant addition to the tableau. It is at points of crushing irony that the writing breathes and comes alive. An image that still hasn’t left my mind is that of the ending of musical chairs. Only the two of them left and one chair, Cherry, in a moment pregnant with emotion, offers it to Oak, before quietly walking away.
Cherry does a splendid job with his character. The actor wears his suave gentlemanly-yet-arrogant skin perfectly. Wicker, Lily and Oak seem a bit overdone and unnecessarily too much. Bamboo’s treatment of her voice and childlike gestures enhance her performance incredibly. The two stars, undoubtedly, are Cherry and Steel. Steel imbibes her character’s nonchalance with such ease and every word that is uttered (or beeped) flows leisurely after kissing the cigarette she perpetually smokes.
The Rose Garden lends itself to the play with a gorgeous melancholy. Spatially, the play operates exclusively in somber places. Its genius lies in its simplicity – a coffin surrounded by candles forms the epicenter, mimicking the psychological landscape of the characters. The looming figure of death is ubiquitous, thematically as well as literally. Employing the notorious ‘v’ effect in its constant use of verbal signals (placards and labelled chairs), the play is not only self-reflexive but also sensitive to the very theatricality of funerals. Oak even says that part of the appeal of funerals is the opportunity to dress up and parade. Sound is a crucial element to the plot and very well handled with the likes of Timber Timbre’s ‘Curtains?!’ and Amy Winehouse’s ‘Back to Black’ on the playlist.
Each character, of course, is dressed entirely in black. The costumes are thoughtful and careful. It immediately conjures a faithful picture of its wearer – Bamboo’s poncho, Cherry’s debonair coat and fingerless gloves, and Oak’s neck lathered in pearls, to name a few. At times, the characters seem to be melting into the colours of the night, only heightening the spectral nature of the play.
Despite its feeble attempt at humor and deficiency of silences, the play perseveres. On its opening night, the performance had to be halted due to a heavy downpour. Who am I to say anything when you have the sobbing sky coming in and mourning with the “little death club.” The play is a thematic, aesthetic and technical pleasure. However, it is also a study in the darkness of human character and psychology. However, in its own mildly twisted and slightly broken way, it tries to transcend that darkness. Cherry’s words echo in my ears and linger in my heart –
Isn’t that what everyone wants? To never be sad?
‘Sorry for Your Loss’ is a DU Players production, written and directed by Saul Sherrard. It was performed on campus at the Rose Garden on 30th November, and the 2nd and 3rd December, 2021. The set was designed by T Kokalj, costumes were by Clara Cronin and sound was handled by Marcel Matys. The cast consisted of David Hannafin as Cherry, Sophia George as Steel, Emma Norse as Bamboo, Lea Reinhardt as Oak, Sean Wade as Wicker, Owen Eglinton as Urnie and Vanessa Byrne as Lily.
