American writer Neil LaBute invariably takes big swings in his plays. Debuting at the Park Theatre, his first UK premiere in an age is no exception. At a time of intense debate around euthanasia and assisted dying in the real world, he collides Brad and Jodie, an American couple who are facing her terminal cancer, with Tate, the man Jodie wants to kill her.
If you want nuanced debate, look elsewhere. LaBute blasts clear through this. As Jodie, Justina Kehinde brings a powerful rawness to her character’s frustration and anger at her situation. But – no spoilers – the solution we’re eventually presented with is so convoluted and elaborate that it drowns out any believable character development. This isn’t helped by a script that repeatedly circles the same points.
Instead, as is so often the case with LaBute’s work, Jodie feels like a catalyst for two men to work through their manliness. Middle-class Brad and his reluctance to help Jodie end her life is juxtaposed with the working-class Tate, a mechanic with a troubled family history who went to school with her and is willing to do what Brad won’t.
Morgan Watkins brings an intriguing unpredictability to Tate, bristling and coiling him like a spring as he comes into conflict with Archie Backhouse’s condescending Brad. Under the play’s increasingly ludicrous set-up, there are some trenchant themes about small-town America, classism and lack of opportunity. But these are drenched by the pissing contest the script devolves into.
There’s a compelling starkness to Lisa Spirling’s production. Mona Camille’s desert-like set, studded with shards of mottled metal and a moon-like hanging light, works as a metaphorically desolate backdrop for a desperate Brad and Jodie’s home in the first half and as an actual location after the interval. It’s just a shame about the play underpinning it.
