Orange Tree Theatre – until 7 August 2021
Reviewed by Carly Burlinge
4****
Last Easter is by Bryony Lavery and directed by Tinuke Craig. The play follows a lady called June (Naana Agyei-Ampadu) who discovers she has terminal cancer and decides that she would like her friends to help her with assisted suicide! It takes you through her journey, capturing insights of her life, as well as the pain and acknowledgement. When her friends discover what she’s going through they decide to plan a French holiday, a pilgrimage to Lourdes where they touch on faith, trying to give her hope for the Miracle. The friends that are involved on this journey are Leah (Jodie Jacobs) a Jewish American artistic prop maker. Gash (Peter Caulfield) a Gay catholic cabaret artist and Joy (Ellie Piercy) who gets invited to cut costs but seems pretty messed up and is a self-absorbed character who continuously drinks to deal with her own situation; being the suicide of her unfaithful boyfriend. She comes across to the audience quite intense and forceful at times and plays the part strongly, showing great emotions throughout.
June plays the part extremely well, comes across very true to the character, is intelligent and covers some difficult subjects. Wondering if she could have done things differently going through the motions, was it her fault could she have lived a better life and so forth. Throughout she showed some heartfelt acting that really got the point across to the audience.
Gash plays a very energetic, full of life character that also can be quite shallow at times. He is unable to show his emotions as he won’t open up and avoids the situation whenever able. He does however offer the audience some comedic relief with some well-timed bad jokes. He plays his character with lots of enthusiasm and has the audience laughing in the process.
Leah’s character shows a loveable, bubbly American with a great voice, who seems to be supportive to her friends, is easily lead by the others and just wants to be loved. She has lots of energy is happy and chatty throughout.
The friends have moments between themselves that discuss snippets of their own lives and emotions, although on a journey together, they are also working out their own issues.
This is a powerful story of friendship, love, understanding, consideration as well as hurt and pain.
This production deals with some hard-hitting, difficult subjects and the questions these raise will stay with you long after viewing.
The lighting for this show was done amazingly well offering a change of moods to each situation giving it a more realistic approach.