Other Lives is theatre in its purest form. There is a single prop onstage—a table which serves as a bed, a door and even a table—so the impact of the play is conveyed without any effects through the power of Ian Townsend’s script and the quality of the cast.
Approaching fifty, Kate (Caroline Chesworth) is a dedicated end-of-life specialist. Lately, however, she has begun to use long working hours (and alcohol) as a shield to avoid confronting personal problems at home. Kate’s wife Michelle (Sue Radcliffe) is older, stricken with terminal cancer and confined to a wheelchair and is becoming increasingly bitter, reproachful and morbidly obsessed with sex.
An already strained relationship is put under more pressure by a visit from late-twenties Gemma (Beth Nolan) who, unbeknown to Michelle, recently had a one-night stand with Kate and admits to being cut-up and screwed-up. Gemma self-harms, struggles to hold a job and needs accommodation. Her appearance offers the opportunity of healing the tensions between Kate and Michelle or destroying the relationship once and for all.
There is potential for Other Lives to become a grim example of misery porn. Ian Townsend creates realistic characters who share an inability to lower defences and ask for help. Sue Radcliffe’s unflinching depiction of someone worn down by fear and physical pain is relentless in illustrating the bleaker side of life. Fortunately, a tentative mother-daughter vibe between Michelle and Gemma gives Radcliffe the chance to demonstrate the dignified self-sacrifice involved in Michelle’s refusal to allow herself false hope so as to avoid raising such expectations in her wife.
Director James Schofield sets an introspective atmosphere in a show with very little physical action. When not conversing, the cast face the audience setting out the inner feelings of the characters and describing their actions. The approach has an almost claustrophobic effect, suggesting the characters are trapped with no option but to think through their limited options.
A dry, dark humour underlies the bleak situation. Gemma acknowledges she sees the staff at the local job centre more often than her own family, and Kate turns over a new leaf by giving up drink—for three days.
Beth Nolan brings a restless, even reckless energy to Gemma to suggest she is constantly moving forward without a clear goal because her past is intolerable. Showing up uninvited at Kate’s house is the closest Gemma can come to acknowledging she needs help. The central irony of the play—a caregiver for terminally ill people losing empathy for her own wife—is carried by Caroline Chesworth. There is the unbearable pain of a relationship being worn away by the apparent ingratitude of a loved one.
Chesworth brings a bone-deep weariness to reflect Kate’s guilt at a decision reached before Michelle became ill. She shows how Kate copes with her personal crisis by drawing on her pride in being able to bring some relief to other people by way of her professional skills.
Other Lives is a surprisingly uplifting display of resilience in the face of the worse that can happen in life.