The Corpse in the Room – Calder Bookshop Theatre, London

Writer: Emily Gibson

Director: Emma Gibson and Joshua Robey

Death is hard enough to think about, but when it is staring you in the face, you have no choice but to face it, such is the premise of Emily Gibson’s new work staging at the Calder Bookshop Theatre as part of The Lambeth Fringe.

This neat hour-long two-hander sees Gibson also star as the ‘Woman’, alongside Ilya Wray’s ominously labelled ‘Corpse’, in a modern take on medieval dream literature.

It is a simple yet unsettling and sinister premise. The play opens with both characters trapped in a dark, empty space, with Gibson’s Woman wrought with terror while Wray’s corpse is prone on the floor. Once the Woman finds solace in her sleep, her dream sequence sees her visited by the Corpse, who wrestles with not only their demise at the hands of the Woman’s abusive partner but also their desperation to spare the Woman from suffering the same fate, as she’s kept captive.

The bond that forges quickly between both characters is a testament to Gibson and Wray’s respective deliveries. This is a bittersweet story, with both characters finding solace in each other as they ponder the lives they could have had, falling in love with life and, perhaps, even each other along the way. It is a piece which grapples with the existence of the afterlife and forces the characters and the audience to simultaneously reflect on what comes next. Gibson’s work is well-placed in the Calder’s intimate setting, enabling audiences to be close spectators to this burgeoning and unusual relationship.

Gibson’s Woman is fraught with a growing madness at both her complicit involvement in the murder’s cover-up and longing to escape the brutality of her never-seen partner. It is an astute touch never to bring the partner onstage, and Gibson’s sensitive handling of her character, a woman who seeks more from life that currently gives her, captures the role’s desperation well.

Wray’s very strait-laced murdered businessman contrasts the Woman’s erratic behaviour well. Wray has a deft approach to this role, with subtle gestures and winks quickly creating the suave yet fragile businessman slain in his prime, but he gets moments to shine when fiercely yearning for the life that has been robbed from him.

At just over an hour, the script does get a little tied up in circles in its final third. Both characters get swept up in spirals that they find hard to break from, and the poignancy of some moments as the play reaches its climax gets hit by extra moments being pushed in. That said, it is hard not to be moved by the pair’s final embrace, and this is well-crafted in Gibson’s writing.

The Corpse in the Room is a cleverly pitched reimagining of such medieval dream pieces, and it evokes sympathy not just in the characters but also in oneself about chances missed and the desire to live life to its fullest.

This is a poignant production, and while death is at its core, it’s a life-affirming piece of theatre.

Reviewed on 27 September 2024