Written by Lorien Haynes and Directed by Natalie Abrahami, Good Grief is a romantic comedy which takes us on a journey of loss, hurt, love and memories.
Filmed on location at Coptic Street Studios, London, the one act piece follows Adam (Nikesh Patel) and Cat (Sian Clifford) after the loss of someone close to them over a 10-month period, taking us through different scenarios and many different emotions.
The piece takes place in one room which is dressed between ‘scenes’ to create different places, from a living room to a car park and even a hotel room. The set is extremely basic, using chairs and cardboard boxes to build different looks and situations. At first this comes across as quite bland and uninspiring but as I went with the piece, I started to feel the lack of scenery reflected the feeling of grief the characters were experiencing. The emptiness and sadness were emulated in the scenery.
Patel delivered the different emotions of grief extremely well, sometimes coping, and other times at a complete loss whereas Clifford added a little humour throughout while still portraying different aspects of grief.
In between ‘scenes’ we see the crew changing the set which reminds us of the people who are working behind the scenes to bring a play together. There was a point in the first section which I found took me out of the story where the reflection in a shiny cycle helmet showed the camera person and sound person, possibly intentional, but took me away from fully immersing in the story at that point.
In times where Coronavirus is ruling the world, it was refreshing to see two actors touch, kiss and bring a little normality to our lives.
A nice, simple piece that talks about how grief is real and it’s a journey that takes time while injecting a little bit of theatre back into our lives.
Good Grief is available to watch online from the 15th February https://originaltheatreonline.com/productions/13/good-grief
Reviewer: Damian Riverol
Reviewed: 12th February 2021
North West End UK Rating: ★★★