UK Theatre Network

Colder Than Here

By Laura Wade

 

Venue:

The Courtyard Theatre, 40, Pitfield Street, London, N1 6EA.

www.thecourtyard.org.uk

 

Dates:

1^st September – 19^th September 2009-09

(Tues – Sat at 7.45 p.m.)

 

As Myra dictates the arrangements for her own funeral, her family get on with life’s little disasters: the boiler refuses to be fixed, the cat’s moved out of its own accord and Jenna, her daughter (the reluctant head of the burial site committee), has a long awaited epiphany.

 

‘Colder Than Here’ was first produced in the West End five years ago.  It has gone on to tour across America and is currently being adapted for the BBC.

 

Act I, Scene I opens on a picnic area where we are introduced to mother, Myra and her eldest daughter, Jenna.  After much small talk on Myra’s part, she suddenly comes out with: “do you think we should bury me here?!”  It is then that we establish, as an audience, that she does not have much time left.  Jenna moodily shakes off what has just been said, obviously not yet willing to accept it.

Although minimal props are used to create the idea of the characters being in a park, Jenna’s descriptive speeches help us to imagine the setting.

 

Scene II takes place in a lounge, where we are introduced to the youngest daughter, Harriet and, as Myra describes her scan, pools of emotion well up in her eyes.  Actress Clare Davenport (Harriet) does this most convincingly.  My only criticism of this scene would be the sightlines, which prevent us from seeing the mother’s reactions to her daughter’s distress.

Alec, the father, walks in at this point and is shortly followed by Jenna who is carrying a suitcase. Jenna awkwardly hugs her mother before taking her case upstairs.

During this scene we hear of Jenna’s cat who has decided to set up home elsewhere. Here I felt Jane Dodd’s (Jenna’s) movements were somewhat stiff, when they could have been less obviously thought about and just naturally fluid.

Myra persuades Jenna to take control of the powerpoint programme she has set up to show them how she would like her funeral proceedings to be carried out.  She tells her she will say “Jenna” whenever she wishes her to click on to the next page.

They are all baffled by the first image which appears to be more like that of a film director, her response is: “it doesn’t have a funeral director, it’s a first draft.”

The next page reads: ‘Cardboard coffin’.  Myra says: “you can order them ahead of time.” Alec, who is not amused, says: “that’s not the point!”

He walks off shortly afterwards, followed closely behind by Harriet.

 

Scene III: The two daughters in a probable funeral ground.  “If we see it about the place, we’ll get used to it” is Jenna’s positive take on the speedy delivery of their mother’s flat-pack cardboard coffin.

Jenna continues to speak saying “I felt like, I want my mummy, coming back after a shit day at work”, already beginning to imagine the void that will be left behind when their mother departs.

On hearing this Harriet picks her up, saying “and now mum’s disappearing, it’s not about your disaster”, becoming angry with Jenna and her selfishness over moving back home when their parents need to spend some quality moments together.

The subject is broken by a new topic.  Boyfriends.

Curious, Jenna enquires how long after she has had an argument with her boyfriend does she leave it till they make up, obviously relating it to the row she has just had with her own boyfriend.

“same day?” (Jenna, stunned)

“always.” (Harriet)

 

Scene IV.  Father kicks back to listen to Brahms.  His silence is soon broken when his youngest bursts into the room complaining how all the food is dying in the fridge.

Mother enters, awoken by the squeaky pipes.

Harriet tries to shock her over the state of the fridge by saying “There was bacteria in there” but she responds back positively with “Beautiful. Circle of life.”

When the father has left the room mother and daughter go through a keep/chuck process, sifting through all their old herbs.  Something I could relate to in my own family!

Harriet exits and Alec comes back into the room with a mended heater.  Myra, realizing she is cranky, says to him “Am I horrible?”, he responds with: “You’re ill.  Now, get out of the way!”

 

Scene V, Father and daughter Jenna meet at another prospective funeral ground. Myra has had a funny spell, so Alec takes her place that day.

“Well, it’s colder than the house!”, his reaction to resting place.

Not relevant to the play itself but I found the performance that was going on above us most disturbing!

Richard Woolnough, who plays Alec, plays the scene very naturally, particularly when the focus is shifted on to Jenna and her troubled relationship.

Jenna says “Dads aren’t supposed to like your boyfriends”, as she describes her boyfriend spending less and less time with her and more time with his new found college friends.

(Father continues with his crossword.)

“We don’t even have sex any more”, Jenna says, to which she gets a response back, “No need to tell me about that!” (from her father, whose physical relationship with his wife we can assume is now non-existent).

“..don’t do problems”,is a mumbling, realistic response back when you think that most conversations like this are held between a mother and daughter.

The haunting music that runs throughout the play at the end of each scene, although pretty, is beginning to get on my nerves by now!

 

The final scene of Act I, the 2 sisters are sitting in the lounge room in front of the cardboard coffin.

“It looks big”, says Jenna.

“Sometimes fat people die!” (Harriet)

Harriet, not able to handle the situation, exits as father enters and reacts to coffin by saying “well, that’s it then? Do the more expensive ones look less like a cardboard box?!”

“It won’t do once we’ve drawn on it” (Jenna replies).

 

(Father goes to fetch mother as the daughters continue to draw.)

They chuckle together when Jenna comes out with: “My clouds look like turds.”

“I’d have learnt how to draw if I’d have known.” (Harriet)

Jenna intrigued to know what it is like inside a coffin, lies down inside it, quickly jumping out as she hears her mother’s footsteps creeping up upon her and saying to Harriet “This didn’t happen..”

“It doesn’t look how I expected.” (Myra)

She continues to speak: “I’d like to be buried on my side.. ..like I’m sleeping.”

Her reasoning behind it explained when she says: “I think I’ll be scared of the earth coming down on me.”

“Oh would one of you, for a change, know what to do?”, frustrated by their apparent lack of input.

 

Act II, Scene I includes the 2 sisters at burial ground.

They are considering the irony underlying the cardboard coffin.

“.. I walk in and she’s sitting in the coffin watching Have I got news for you, laughing..” (Harriet)

Distraction once more from the performance upstairs, argh!

When they are both sitting Jenna informs Harriet: “I finished with Mark, when I realized I didn’t want him at the funeral.”

(They get up to go, exit laughing, having somehow been brought closer together by the news.)

 

Scene II has to be my favourite scene in the entire play for its emotional warmth.  Alec, the father, is on the phone to the electricity board, who have left them without heating for 5+ months.

“Can I call you mate, I feel we know each other well?..

 ..Good God, it’s no wonder you’re not worried about my problems when you’re in Glasgow!”

“..You actually don’t have the power to do anything.”

“I tell you my wife’s dying.  No, it’s not your problem” (the person on the other end of the line concerned they may be held liable.)

He continues “The very least you can do is to let her die in the warm.”

(The wife enters the room.)

She remarks “I’m going off baths. Too much thinking time.”

 Then she makes it clear she has something important to discuss with him.

“You might meet someone else..”, she says.

She continues with her spiel, despite his reluctance for her to do so.  “You might hold back.  And I don’t want that for you..

..You’re not expecting it now.  You might fall in love.”

(Alec gets up from his chair.)

“You should switch to paper hankies.  Women don’t like those”, she says as he puts his handkerchief back in his pocket.)

“The funeral isn’t for you..”, he says.  “.. people need something to do..”, allowing himself to get more upset and thumping himself down on the couch beside her.

(They snuggle up close.)

“..weeks left..”, she says, trying to ease his pain.

“..lots more awkward talks”, after he admits he is only human and does cry.

Myra resists being helped to bed, preferring to continue to snuggle up and decides she wants to sleep in his room tonight, using the excuse of it being tidier than her’s.

 

The Final Scene, Jenna with her mother in yet another burial ground or is it the same one as before?! Ending is in a similar space to where the play first started.

“Should have died last Thursday, as it’d got to 6 months”, the mother says.

“It’s easier to be open in summer.”(Myra, referring to the time of year her funeral is likely to fall.)

“..I don’t know if we’ll do it without you, sorry”, Jenna concerned that the family may not be able to express their emotions in public.

The mother spots one of Muggins’ (Jenna’s cat’s) hairs on her top and tells her to make a wish as she blows it away, even though a wish is normally made on an eyelash.

Jenna speaks of her new boyfriend who isn’t ‘a wanker’.

What is lovely about this scene is the dialogue between mother and daughter which had always been a bit of an issue before.

She is hardly able to restrain herself from sharing her sexual experiences with her but realizes that her mother is in need of her tablets and that she must quickly nip back and get them before she continues her story. As she goes she ironically says: “Try not to die.  I haven’t finished telling you”.  Myra lies back, finding a comfortable position, falling into a deep, deep sleep, from which we know she will not this time wake up.

 

I was surprised to see the play end quite so soon in to the second half. Having said this, it did seem an appropriate place to. We had seen the eldest daughter, Jenna, come to terms with her mother’s imminent death and find solace in her new found love. I feel it  would have just been rather nice to have also seen what happened with the youngest daughter, Harriet.  If a little irritating, perhaps this was truer to life where not everything is always resolved.

However, this bears no reflection on the acting. I think it fair to say that Lily Ann Green (Myra) and Richard Woolnough (Alec) come across as the actors with the most experience behind them, including that of life. This is reflected in their natural, effortless and true to life performances.