A Heavenly Way to Die – Unity Theatre

Up Next is a new event series showcasing exciting new work from Merseyside performers and this piece was a rehearsed read through of Tom Kinney’s love story about being in a relationship while suffering from Harm OCD.

Centred predominantly around bedroom scenes, we see the developing relationship between Violet (Angelina Cliff) and Glen (Liam Powell-Berry). All seems well but that natural initial nervousness doesn’t leave Violet, in fact she continues to feel anxious around Glen all the time. But it’s not him. It’s because she has intrusive and obsessive thoughts that she will hurt him while she sleeps.

It is an interesting concept and the piece under the direction of Emma Turner was well read by Cliff and Powell-Berry with stage directions read in by Aimee Cross. With the focus on the words rather than the performance it allows a closer scrutiny of the flow of the piece which is always of benefit to any writer.

Whilst I felt a natural chemistry between Cliff and Powell-Berry, the series of vignettes that hold the overall story arc together seemed overlong and I didn’t feel any depth to the characters or their relationship develop as we progressed through them. There was some repetition of conversation that underlined this and with one aspect of their relationship under serious challenge, I would have expected greater frustrations coming to the fore, particularly from Glen which would have added a further dynamic: everyone was just a little too nice and understanding.

Violet’s monologues to the audience were an interesting idea designed to allude to the underlying issue whilst perhaps throwing us off the actual scent a little but were again overlong and became too much tell rather than show to the extent that I began to question where the piece was going, if anywhere; when we did eventually get there it felt a bit flat and I didn’t feel invested in either of the characters.

My advice to Kinney is to keep working on it through workshops with the cast and draw out their own relationship experiences which will reinforce the authenticity: it is an interesting idea and a story that deserves to be told with some good lines that elicited a positive response from the audience. Be careful though that friends and family don’t just tell you what you want to hear.

I’ve seen Powell-Berry in several productions over the last few years and more recently with Naughty Corner Productions, so it was good to see him playing a very different role to those and which further underlined his natural talent and ability.

Performed live at Unity Theatre, this is part of Unity’s Open Call and supported by Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse. It was also refreshing to see tonight’s production use surtitles. https://www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk/

Reviewer: Mark Davoren

Reviewed: 18th September 2021