Nottingham New Theatre are an English student-run theatre producing over thirty shows a year, ranging from Elizabethan classics to contemporaries plays and original student-written pieces. Their Fringe show this year, What Goes On Without Me, is in the latter category and asks the question “what would you do if, after you died, you could have 10 extra minutes of life that had no impact on anything other than you?”
That is the question facing Jude. She has woken up dead, in a waiting room located on the upper east side of the afterlife, and in the company of a slightly dotty omniscient being offering cups of tea, biscuits, some celebrity gossip and the above dilemma (with caveats).
Interspersed with vox pops of interviewees trying to answer the same question, this is comedic yet sincere attempt to ask a philosophical question which, even if the solution wasn’t personal, would still have no definitive answer. So while the question might be the meat of the show, at its heart are the two performances by the actors playing the Higher Power and Jude, who remain likeable and funny respectively as the eccentric comedy foil and the less flashy but equally challenging lead.
The theatre company’s ambition and experience is on clear display in this well-acted and very entertaining play around an intriguing concept. If the idea intrigues you, you won’t be disappointed.
What Goes On Without Me plays 17th, 19th, 22th, 24th, 26th August at the Space on the mile 2, and tickets can be found at: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/what-goes-on-without-me
Reviewer: Oliver Giggins
Reviewed: 15th August 2023
North West End UK Rating: