Noah staggers to his feet feeling pretty out of it. It might be the aftereffects of the beer cans littering the table, or the empty tablet bottle.
The tablets belonged to his girlfriend, Charlotte, prescribed for a medical condition but becoming a source of addiction. She’s gone now, today is the anniversary of her death, so it’s more than a little weird when she turns up with mac ‘n’ cheese.
Things are either trippy or he’s dead and the afterlife (or afterdeath) isn’t that different. It seems that she got a message to come and the food package thing, while not required is sort of etiquette, helping to reconnect to better memories.
Before he can adjust to this awkward new plane of existence his soldier brother Archie shows up with their traditional Christmas burgers, seemingly none the worse for the landmine incident. Only for their father, William, to arrive with rhubarb pie and a desire to catch up. He and Archie have been hanging out together and are on easy terms, but Noah thinks that he may be here out of guilt as he views him as a flawed parent and husband who met a shameful end.
They have all the ingredients of a night in - TV (which seems to also operate as a “creepy TV” allowing the dead to watch the living), food and family - with an added portion of tension.
Perhaps Noah’s subconscious has been at play as it appears that he made two phone calls. One brings Norman, the new in town food delivery guy. When they tip him off as to the situation, he serves up some New Age revelations on the true nature of time and life.
Noah needs to make some decisions about his courses.
It’s an entirely watchable, well performed and often humorous production but the mix of family drama and spiritualty (with a side serving of “It’s a Wonderful Life”) sit a little uncomfortably. While Noah and Charlotte seem to have something big to tell this isn’t really explored.
Running at 45 minutes (rather than the billed 70 minutes), it’s not entirely satisfying.
Show times: 4 to 24 (even dates) August 2024 at 3.15pm
Tickets: £11 (£8) (Family £7).
Suitability: 16+ (Contains strong language, discussions of death, suicide and addiction).