BWW Reviews: AND NO MORE SHALL WE PART Brings Tears to the Audiences' Eyes

Reviewed 21st June 2013

When death eventually comes it is a different experience for each of us, and we all approach it in our own way. It can also involve others, the ones who are left behind, and they also have to deal with it in some way; not just the death of that person, but the future without them. Multi award winning Australian born playwright, Tom Holloway's, touching play, And No More Shall We Part, introduces an older couple, Pam and Don, and shows how they deal with her approaching death.

As the play begins we find, on a raised platform, Pam in bed and Don sitting close by in an armchair, with only a bedside table to complete the furnishings. Behind them is suspended a large, white, Japanese style screen. Lighting alone creates the difference between this bedroom and the hallway that Dan uses to traverse the stage to doorways leading to other parts of their home. Manda Webber's elegant set design, and Alexander Ramsay's lighting combine to create not only the different locations but also a sombre mood. Composer, Daniel Thorpe's, almost subliminal sound design adds greatly to creating the right atmosphere.

Director, Yasmin Gurreeboo, only arrived in Adelaide a few months ago from Britain and has already made her mark with this production. Aside from selecting two people who are perfect for the roles she has hit on an innovative method of quickly and seamlessly presenting the flashbacks showing a few important moments leading up to the scene in the bedroom. She has turned these into short sections into video, displayed on the Japanese screen at the rear. She has gone for simplicity, with a basic two camera set up, and relied on great performances and some extremely fine editing to carry the weight. This works extremely well and keeps the work flowing by avoiding the need for the performers to move from one scene to another.

Peter Green and Jacqy Phillips have both been involved in the Adelaide theatre scene for many years, and have earned plenty of admiration and critical acclaim for their work, but they have both surpassed themselves in this stunning production. These are far and away the finest performances that I have seen from either of them. The emotions that they express literally have some of the audience becoming tearful and reaching for a handkerchief and, with no interval to spoil the intensity, it is impossible not to engage with this loving couple facing that final separation.

They present many of the "five stages of grief" as defined by Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, evident in Don's reaction to Pam's illness but, more so, to her own acceptance of the inevitability of her death and her decisions to take control of the time and place herself, rather than go on a little longer, suffering increased pain as the time goes by. Although the play involves euthanasia, it is not a discussion of that, nor an argument for or against it. It is simply a decision that Pam has made and that Don must accept and live with.

Don is handling it all very badly and it is Pam who has to become the tower of strength to help him through what is happening. The close rapport between Green and Phillips is a vital ingredient in their remarkable ability to make Don and Pam very real to the audience and engender the powerful reactions to their short time remaining as a couple.

This is an exceptional piece of theatre and, with only a week to run, should definitely be at the top of your "must see" list for June.

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