Bury Me
Over the month of February, Riverside Studios is playing host to several pieces of new work. One of those pieces is ‘Bury Me’, a one-act comedy-drama about weird family members, clerical errors, and the love we carry with us.
We meet Nina who has been left dealing with all the admin and emotional labour of arranging her little brothers funeral following an illness. All she wants is to get it over and done with but things don’t go to plan when the funeral home fail to transport her brother to the right place. The course of the hour jumps back and forth between the here and now of the funeral and the past of Nina’s memories with her brother. It does get a little confusing at times exactly where we are but its follow-able for the most part.
This is a dark comedy, full of heart wrenching emotional moments as well as some hilarious times as well. Gillian Konko does well here as Nina, dealing with the difficult emotions with strength and a believable performance.
Eleanor Dunlop is a stand out performer in the piece, taking on several roles each one in stark contrast to the last and each played with authenticity and skill. Fitzroy ‘Pablo’ Wickham brings some delightful comic relief to the play with his characters, especially the useless funeral home worker who clearly should never be dealing with grief!
There were some issues with lighting cues and sound on the night I saw this play, unfortunately a lot of the words were lost to ‘atmospheric scene setting’ sounds which meant some key points were missed. Although the writing does, in the most part, feel strong from Mina Moniri, the piece as a whole did feel a little too long, some scenes felt like they lost their way and points. Some refinement to the script and tightening would be the suggestion to improve here.
This is a play that takes on the large subject matter of grief and deals with it well. It shows us there can be humour in dark times and that grief is experienced by everyone in their own way. Worth watching if you want to see something new for a very reasonable price!
This show was reviewed on the 1st February 2024. Bury Me runs at the Riverside Studios until the 4th February 2024. Tickets available here: Bury Me | Riverside Studios
Review written by Rosie Browne
AD/Gifted
We need your consent to load the translations
We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details in the privacy policy and accept the service to view the translations.