Give Me One Moment in Time, written and performed by Doug Crossley in his debut solo show, is not a montage of Whitney Houston songs. Instead, it’s a heart-rendering story about suicide. The amiable Crossley has a good rapport with the audience whom he asks to think of a special moment in time for them. The results will become evident later on in the play.
The concept is a bit confusing; is this a TED Talk, as he often breaks the fourth wall to comment on his own story, or is this a play?
He gives us a history of his life when he went to Guildford School of Acting and about his older brother’s attempted suicide. Then his best friend took her own life two years ago and he found himself having a breakdown, sitting in his pants and trying to write music.
But he meanders from the point, performing a song about falling in love with a goat. It all starts to become rather bizarre.
He decides to put the issue of suicide on trial, convincing a member of the audience to be the judge.
The trauma that his friend felt was revealed in a song “Curtains Drawn at 32”. She wrote a 72-page document and, when Crossley read it, he tells us, “it made me retch.”
There are some serious questions posed. Can an imprint of suicide in families be carried down the generations? He encourages us to, “leave the future alone” and be free of the constraints of time.” Certainly, a pause for thought.