Dying City

Dying City is a short and sombre meditation on grief, secrets, trauma, memory and relationships.

Hoy Polloy TheatreMIPAC Saturday 14 August 2010
Dying City is a short and sombre meditation on grief, secrets, trauma, memory and relationships. According to playwright Christopher Shinn, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, ‘the past keeps intruding on the present, despite all our conscious efforts to escape it and move forward.’ Dying City proves his point, although it seems that Kelly, a psychologist, has consciously chosen to numb herself and retreat from the world. 
It’s a year since Craig’s funeral after he was shot dead in Iraq, and his widow, Kelly, has shut down. She’s changed her numbers and packed up the New York apartment from which she and Craig had watched the smoke cloud descend on 9/11, and spends much of her time in front of the television, watching Law and Order. But Craig’s twin, Peter, a gay actor beginning to meet with fame, barges in, questioning the way Craig died and tantalising Kelly with a stack of emails that may reveal a side of Craig that she never knew. Peter’s arrival brings back unwanted memories of the trio’s last night together, before Craig headed to Iraq.
Dying City shuttles between the present, with the stifled Kelly startled by Peter’s intrusion, and the past, where a tense, angry Craig calls the shots. Brad Williams does a good job playing both Peter and the morose, unlikeable Craig. Zoe Ellerton-Ashley’s muted performance echoes the depression that renders psychologist Kelly inert, a shadow of her former self. 
This is a fine production of an excellent play. Until 29 August 2010
Bookings: hoypolloytheatre.blogspot.com