Writer: Alejandra Chamorro Cuevas
Translator: Mónica Lopera
Director: Miguel Torres Umba
“What a better time to die than when you are most alive,” reads the final suicide note by a man who has failed to kill himself three times before. Doctor William Holloway, at the end of his rope and looking for an answer, enters the Assisted Dying Center, where you can ‘Die with Dignity’, with nothing but death on his mind. But there’s a catch: the receptionist at this centre, a high-spirited, playful and imaginative woman named Vivi, falls head-over-heels in love with him.
A promise is struck. If William will go on a date with Vivi (Mónica Lopera), then she will be the required witness for his assisted dying operation, technically a strict no-no for staff, but she’s real sweet on him. Vivi herself had a brush with death in a motorcycle crash which, though she continually makes light of her injuries, sent her into a coma. Ditching her then “ugly” boyfriend Felipe, Vivi is filled with new “vibes”, new “energy” and a desire to fall in love with someone else. Enter the doctor with a “trendy” name, clinical depression and a drab grey suit paired with chinos.
At the worst, she will fake a pregnancy to get William to stay alive and at best, she will prove her love and be the witness. She watches the man she adores do the one thing that will tear her apart. Goodbye is an absurd experimental comedy filled with such moments that remind us that things only have beauty if they have an ending.
Alejandra Chamorro Cuevas’s dialogue hits all the right notes for today’s audiences: an AI voice tells appalling dad jokes to try to cheer William up; both characters continually question what the hell does it mean to be human. There are also touching experimental moments of choreography showing the passing of time. In a poignant moment, William asks Vivi if she believes “that before dying the soul leaves the body to avoid pain.” She pauses, unable to answer.
The set is almost bare apart from a stool and a reception desk. But these explode with detail and create vital movement pieces, the best being a short stint with a cut-out horse representing a carousel, with both actors bobbing up and down to show the movement. Two buzzers on the desk can be slammed to turn the whole stage red or green depending on whether William’s documentation is complete yet.
Miguel Torres Umba, the director, steps into Samuel Anderson’s shoes today to play William due to the actor being ill. And if this is the show when it’s a man down, it must be something even more magical when the team is back together. Umba knows the script almost inside out, throwing himself into the shoes of the character with ease after only a day’s notice. Lopera playing Vivi brings all the swagger, with the audience cackling with laughter at one minute and, in the next, shedding some very visible tears.
The Housemates Festival 2026, celebrating new writing and putting the limelight on emerging artists shaping the future of theatre, has come upon a winner. Goodbye is bold, brazen and unafraid to ask the most difficult question. If someone wants to die, truly wants to end their life as it is making them so unhappy that nothing works, do we let them?
Runs until 19 September 2026
