Wife After Death

Wife After Death, by Eric Chappell, was first presented at the Theatre Royal, Brighton in March 2010. The story tells of the aftermath of the death of comedian and national treasure Dave Thursby.  On the day of his funeral, friends and colleagues gather beside his coffin to pay their last respects. There's Harvey, who wrote Dave's material; Vi, Harvey's wife; Kevin, Dave's agent, and Kevin's wife Jane. Dave's glamorous widow Laura has arranged a funeral to remember, complete with a horse-drawn hearse and an attendant dog. An unfamiliar woman in flamboyant mourning clothes turns out to be Kay, Dave's ex-wife from before he was famous, and a series of revelations end with Kevin throwing a drink into the coffin and all the guests asking themselves if they ever knew the "real" Dave.  The action continues in act 2 with the disposal of the ashes which together with further revelations gives the impression that Dave is having the last laugh.

This production had the audience tittering and laughing from the outset. The comfortable seats in a most pleasant atmosphere make it easy to sit back and enjoy the production.

The spacious sitting room was indeed that.  Plenty of room to house the coffin and for the actors to walk round.  I was particularly struck by the simplicity of the set dressing.  It would have been so easy to clutter the room up with “bits”.  Everything necessary was there and gave the actors good space in which to move.

The husband and wife team, Vi and Harvey Barrett, played by Christine Linden-Smith and Jonathan Hope were excellent.  They had some extensive sections of dialogue which they managed perfectly varying the pace of delivery and the intensity in all the right places.  They were so believable and held the course of the play together.  Jan Osborne as Laura Thursby played the grieving widow remarkably well but seemed to come alive with the arrival of the previous wife whilst not realising the implications and that bigamy was soon to be evident.  The ever-serious theatrical agent Kevin Prewitt proved to be a figure of fun to everyone else a role which Julian Thomas played to perfection ably supported by his ever-gullible wife Jane Prewitt (Sarah Thomas).  A change of atmosphere occurred when the true implications of the original wife Kay, played so ably by Paula Mayne.  Her facial expressions when the rest of the cast came to startling conclusions were a picture.

The play truly entertained the audience and the murmurs of appreciation on the way out were audible.  Congratulations to all those involved in this production in whatever role – a first-class evening’s entertainment.

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