Anatomy of a Suicide

There are three leading women in Alice Birch’s amazing play - Carol, Anna and Bonnie - and we learn pretty soon that they are related: mother, daughter and granddaughter. Thanks to a brilliant setting, they co-exist in three different time zones and we follow key events in their lives simultaneously.

Alice Birch brings complete authority to this scrambled time zone, and we pick and make sense of it all.

It’s been a while since the set has been so vital an ingredient in a play’s success, but here it is – designed by the play’s director Shane Anthony and producer Gus Murray – a dazzlingly white wall of windows and doors that cuts the acting area neatly into two: front and back. The front of the wall is shared by the three women, often acting their scenes at exactly the same time. Behind the wall are key props – that bath! – we just know that we’ll get to them later.

Potential suicide is the main problem with our three women. Carol (Anna Houston) has cut her wrists and remains uneasy throughout; Anna (Anna Samson) suffers from drug addiction and, married to a documentary film-maker, she’s unhappy throughout; and Bonnie (Kate Skinner) is a physician, successful but guarded in her gay relationships.

The audience is kept in a suspended state of agitation throughout: how and when will a suicide take place? For almost two hours the suspense continues, with the action kept under Shane Anthony’s firm control. 

The company of 10 keep the action tight and unrelenting: even the many changes of furniture are intriguing. Outstanding among the supporting cast are Danielle Catanzariti as a 13 year old, and Harriet Gordon-Anderson as Bonnie’s friend, but pin-point accuracy and split-second timing is required of everyone. 

This terrific production should be seen far and wide. 

Frank Hatherley

Photographer:  Phil Erbacher.