Writer and Director: Ben Blais
Bringing his Edinburgh Fringe show Dead Mom Play to the Union Theatre, Ben Blais has created a 60-minute refraction of grief and avoidance, a performance that is surreal and true at the same time, self-conscious about itself but also doing everything it can to avoid talking about the death that centres the narrative. A deliberately unstructured piece that squirms away from the characters, taking the audience down dead ends, through (largely) American cultural reference points and through guilt-infused conversations with a mother figure played by Hannah Harquart who lies dying on stage for most of the show.
Dead Mom Play is a hard show to describe and does a lot of things, sometimes all at once. Some of its successes centre on the deliberate evasions that begin with character but ultimately filter up to the level of the authorial voice. Initially, protagonist Charlie (Griffyn Bellah), Blais’ proxy in the drama, and his mom speak in conversation, a call-and-response approach to dialogue, yet it quickly emerges that neither is actively listening to the other and are engaged in two separate interactions, perhaps simultaneously but maybe at different time periods. A similar scene takes place towards the end of the show as Charlie’s birth is described and is perhaps more effective at conveying the characters’ state of mind and nature of grief than anything else in the play, making it central to everything that is happening but equally unwilling to tackle it directly.
This is supported by a more moving sequence in which Charlie is prompted by the physical manifestation of Death (Joe Bellis) to present one true thing in the show in order to buy an additional week of life for his mother. Here Charlie is given a monologue that reveals the feelings of closeness to his absent parent enhanced by it being just the two of them and circles back through some of the happier memories including trips taken together. Blais has Charlie describe his mother as “frozen in time” while he has aged, suggesting how long ago the bereavement must have taken place and the shape of an adult life that has grown without her. It is the most meaningful moment in the production.
The rest is more haphazard; interactions with Death who loiters around for a few cultural references that may not land with everyone including the Davy Crockett television series and the Mr Ratburn cartoon character from the Arthur stories, as well as neighbours arriving with endless lasagnas that become a running joke. The mum character gets to step in and out of the story, although the purpose of this is less clear, and there is a farcical Benny Hill-style chase mixed with a bit of Scooby Doo later on as all three cast members pursue one another, building to a more serious if underpowered threat of suicide that needs better grounding.
It is an interesting early play from an emerging writer with an understanding of form and structure, and a willingness to experiment with storytelling choices as a result. It’s verbose and fast-talking which adds pace, so it works in part as a dramatisation of the complex and ongoing impact of grief but needs a stronger purpose to help the viewer navigate that disparate experience alongside the writer and his characters.
Runs until 17 April 2025
The Reviews Hub Score
Needs purpose
