Death is everywhere in Laura Wade's "Breathing Corpses." At various points in the story, three different characters find dead bodies, and the connections among these incidents link the scenes of the play. Wade has created a portrait of contemporary English existence, filled with empty lives and pointless violence. But, it was hard for me to tell what point she was trying to make or why she chose the stories she did to make it.
The scenes are presented out of time sequence, with the audience left to make connections among the various characters and incidents. The people presented on stage are a sad group, including a chambermaid in a drab hotel, with an unfortunate tendency towards finding corpses in the rooms she cleans (a poignant Julia Siple); the owner of a storage company, where one of the units is emitting an unfortunate odor (Peter Moore, who slowly reveals the strain behind his geniality); and a severely dysfunctional couple (a volatile Lucy Carapetyan and Jonathan Edwards). None of them have much meaning in their lives, and things only get grimmer as the scenes move along.
Wade seems to be pointing to an ill in society, but it is hard to tell what exactly the problem is—other than that people die, often in horrible ways—or what is the cause. As it is, the play is simply a series of scenes of unfortunate people in unhappy situations. The scenes are generally interesting and well-acted, but despite the strong efforts of Director Robin Witt, I had trouble figuring out why they were being presented onstage. As a result, a series of individually worthwhile scenes was sadly lacking in cumulative impact.
Reviewed by Centerstage!
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