Mental illness is hardly a laughing matter. But the relentlessly downbeat tone of Catherine Cropper’s Life After is close to misery porn.
At school, Ashleigh (Rachel Slater) is a one-woman awkward squad. However, English teacher Mr. Carter (Alfred Howard) believes her creative writing shows potential and encourages her to practice the craft, with disastrous consequences.
There isn’t a single character in Life After who does not suffer some misfortune. Ashleigh not only has a younger sister with cerebral palsy, her distraction allows the child to be abducted after which she begins self-harming. Mr. Carter resigns from teaching after being accused of grooming Ashleigh and turns to drink, even before his wife Grace (Janet Leather) becomes terminally ill. Ashleigh’s parents Shaz (Mindi Leonard-Lockett) and Dave (Andrew Cropper) are so traumatised by the loss of their daughter, they cease to represent the hard-working underclass and, respectively, sink into clinical depression or abandon their responsibilities.
The first act is so downbeat as to come close to parody—you half expect someone to say "cheer up—it may never happen". There are some humorous moments in the play, and Janet Leather brings a more positive outlook with her perceptive and compassionate artist, but the oppressive atmosphere created by Cropper (who also directs) makes the audience feel uncomfortable about laughing.
There are some decent performances—Andrew Cropper as both a worn-out wage slave and slimy statistics obsessed headteacher. But the cast are not helped by dialogue swinging from knowingly ironic to melodramatic.
There are some obscure moments in the script. I was confused as to whether Grace Carter was coping with a dementia-type disease or cancer. Both Mr. Carter and Shaz get over their reliance on alcohol and antidepressants with great speed when required by the script.
There are enough traumatic incidents in Life After to fuel a season of a soap opera, so squeezing them into a single play makes for a heavy experience.