Good Grief ★★★★★ Platform Presents and Finite Films | Feb 15 - Apr 15, 2021


Just when lockdown may have made us resigned to an intellectual diet of television, featuring the improbable acted by the unbelievable, along comes this wonderful little play by Lorien Haynes. A thoughtful meditation on loss and relationships, Good Grief is beautifully crafted and brilliantly performed. Adam (Nikesh Patel) has lost his partner and Cat (Sian Clifford) has lost her best friend. Their shared exploration of the mourning experience is charged with some very sharp banter and some very poignant moments. There's a lot of humour here and a great chemistry between Patel and Clifford. They move naturally and sensitively through a gamut of emotions while coming to terms with the new parameters of their relationship. The play explores how grief, like love, comes in many forms and how both are subject to personal and social boundaries. Director, Natalie Abrahami cleverly uses the black and white scene-change sequences to deconstruct the illusions and conventions of theatre while paralleling the play's deconstruction of the expectations and behavioural codes surrounding experiences of grief and love. Somewhere between a theatrical and film experience, the production of Good Grief also pushes us to question our categorisation of media. Definitions aside, this is a delightful and thoughtful entertainment, perfect fare in the cultural famine that is the time of Covid.

Rated: ★★★★★

Reviewed by J.C.

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