Biographies of the Dead and Dying: violently haunting

I have been praying to the Theatre Gods to send someone to write a play about ghosts that would leave my skin crawling and my heart pounding. Well, someone up there heard me, and sent Andrew Templeton along with MachineFair and Craning Neck Theatre baring their newest creation: Biographies of the Dead and  Dying.

Biographies tells the story of Alice, a writer who claims she has no imagination.  To cure herself of writer’s block, she decides to rent a haunted house in a remote location on Vancouver Island with the goal of writing the biography of the ghost who inhabits the house.  But instead of curing her of writer’s block, Alice finds herself in an intense relationship with the missing and the dead. 

This show is violently haunting.  All the elements of Biographies are crafted together perfectly to create an incredibly eerie piece of theatre. Templeton’s writing is both lyric and quick-witted.  His piece has a seamless flow of making even the most unnerving moments buzz with bits of dark comedy. The production shines fiercely under Jeremy Waller’s direction, and both of the actors execute his vision beautifully.

Heather Lindsay is simply mind-blowing as Alice.  She hits the audience bang-on with subtle comedic timing, and the intensity that she brings to the character from the very start of the show makes it very hard to tear your eyes away from her.

Simon Driver’s physicality and subtlety in the characters of Jack and Jonathon are both eerie and graceful. His transformations between the two are terrific, and he has your skin crawling throughout the show. The two actors balance each other out beautifully.

Biographies of the Dead and Dying is something everyone who planning on visiting The Fringe this year MUST see. Opening night sold out pretty quick, and I’m hoping the same thing happens throughout the next 2 weeks. This show deserves it.

For show information go here.

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