Matt Adie has taken his personal experience of grief and crafted both a heart-warming and heart-breaking account of the months and years following the death of his wife. In this witty, beautifully written piece, he manages to deliver laughs aplenty punctuated by moments of deep and authentic emotional pain, all the while swerving deftly past any hint of mawkish sentimentality. One senses that the Adie household was full of down-to-earth, no-nonsense humour.
Essentially, the structure of the play is that of a one-man sit-com, requiring a versatile actor with a wide range to play Alex, the recently bereaved narrator, and Danny Swanson more than proves he is the right man for the job. He sets off at a cracking pace, and after a slightly shaky opening, settled into the rhythm of the play with immaculate comic timing. Swanson smoothly shifts gear from delivering whip-smart one liners to dropping into a more confidential, naturalistic tone and inviting the audience to see the profound grief behind the comedy mask. This is a hugely demanding role for any actor and Swanson plays it with subtlety and immense charm – we cannot help but fall for his comic schtik, see past his fake curmudgeon and empathise with his loss and grief.
He is ably supported by an ensemble cast of four, Lou Wallace bringing warmth and stoicism to the role of Alison, the deceased wife. The imagined banter between Alex and his dead wife is reminiscent of the chats Charles Condomine has with his dead wife, Elvira, in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit. No mean feat to pull off this theatrical trick and Wallace and Swanson play off each other nicely. When Alison leaves the stage, we see Alex break and we feel the loss too.
Paul Russell as best friend, Jake, delivers a classic turn as the blokey friend who tells it like it is and gets it wrong more often than right. There is much ‘troof in goof’ as he tries to cajole his pal into socialising and I will struggle to use a spoon without chuckling for some weeks to come. Enough said – no spoilers here! Georgina Bennett is less convincing as daughter Ella, being a little underpowered vocally in comparison to the rest of the company. Special mention must go to Julia Riley who portrays an astonishing parade of characters from the insensitive brother, to a variety of funeral guests spouting platitudes, a Funeral Director, GP, Therapist and more. She is brilliantly funny when delivering an entire dating app, including the voiceover and various unsuitable matches – this woman can play literally anything in any accent, it seems! A virtuoso turn.
With simple but effective lighting, a pared back set and few props, the production offers little by way of visual delight but director Rob Graham delivers a treat in terms of verbal dexterity, pace and rhythm and the everyday interplay of human behaviour when faced with tragedy in the lives of others. One minor quibble, Graham has elected to have the three Ensemble actors sit onstage throughout the play, ranged in a row against the back wall. This means that we are watching them, whilst they are watching the action onstage and this Brechtian approach is not wholly successful, more a distraction for the audience. When Alex shows us the enormity of his loss, how alone he feels and how lonely, this truth is belied by the presence of the three actors behind him, clearly trying to be ‘invisible’ but directly in our eyeline.
That aside, I would urge audiences to fill the Hen and Chickens to give this excellent play the full houses it deserves and I look forward to the next Matt Adie play – an accomplished, witty writer with much to say about the human condition.
Review by Janette Eddisford
After thirty, happy years of marriage, a husband is left to wade through the oncoming tide of grief, as a procession of friends and family, either unable or unwilling to find the right words, unwittingly exacerbate his heightened emotions and irrational outpourings.
Inspired by a true story of love, loss and friendship, Good Grief is a brutally honest and personal account of one man’s attempts to deal with the reality of loss and the ensuing void which threatens to consume him. Expect belly laughs, tears, and larger than life characters, all rooted in the truth of a very human experience. Not to be missed!
Danny Swanson – Alex
Lou Wallace – Alison
Paul Russell – Jake
Georgina Bennett – Ella
Julia Cook – Ensemble
Matt Adie – Writer
Rob Graham – Director
Maddie Palmer – Stage Manager
Tristan Cameron – Light & Sound
Georgina Bennett – Producer
GOOD GRIEF
The Hen & Chickens Theatre, 109 St Paul’s Road, London N1 2NA
18 to 22 March 2025
A wonderful review of this inspiring play. Watching and feeling the story of Alex et al, you know that the writer and the players all understand and convey what it is to love, lose and struggle with the fallout.
I agree with the review, Go and Fill the House, you won’t regret it!