Afternoon Play - Review

‘How To Remember The Dead’ – Jemma Kennedy – Afternoon Play Wed 1st March

SYNOPSIS & NOTES

1. The play opens with flashback of an incident between a young man (John) and an elderly Polish man who has just collapsed on the street in front of him.

STRENGTH – Good bold opening – overlapping voices add intrigue.

2. John wakes up – it was another bad dream. We discover the old man died and that John can’t get the incident out of his head.
3. A naturalistic scene between John and his partner Sophie. John has been calling in sick at work, there has been tension in the relationship since the incident happened. Sophie puts pressure on John to think about their anniversary and make an effort in their relationship. She is unsympathetic and uninterested in John's recurring dreams.

PLAUSABILITY – can you have such a lucid conversation in the middle of the night?
WEAKNESS – Aren’t they in a rather clichéd relationship – fulfilling very typical gender roles? What is interesting/different about them? Why do we want to spend 45minutes discovering their secrets/desires..? What can they offer us? How is their relationship going to change/develop?

4. John meets a Polish taxi driver who is far more sympathetic. He translates a tape that John made of the dying man.

PLAUSABILITY – John is a Sociology teacher – he always carries a Dictaphone with him (?)

5. John persuades the taxi driver to take him to a church. They witness mass. They have a conversation about the differences between them. Poland and England.

WEAKNESS – The relationship feels phoney. The exchanges are superficial.
DIALOGUE – Feels void of any real feeling and is rather clichéd – ‘I take your money then I say bye bye.’ Does anyone really speak like this? Where is the emotion? Where is the dramatic tension? Where are the three dimensional characters?

6. John continues to argue with Sophie, she continues to threaten him.
7. Sophie suddenly relents and John invites the Polish guy round, they get drunk and we discover that Sophie has set him up with her best friend.

WHAT ABOUT THE DEAD GUY? Why haven’t we found anything interesting out about this? Why has the writer dumped this storyline in the favour of a plot driven TV style drama? Why is this radio?

8. Sophie leaves John.
9. John sends her flowers.
10. Sophie comes home.
11. Polish taxi driver and John witness the funeral (how) of the dead bloke. John decides he doesn’t feel that attached to him or the idea of him anymore. He has family etc. John can how more on. They destroy the tape (not that we know what was on it anyway or why it was particularly significant)

Was there a sense of journey – yes a superficial one. We didn’t feel at all connected/interested in John. His connection with the dead bloke was never explored. How do we feel at the end of 45 minutes..disappointed.