Do Not Resuscitate: Am I Dead Yet?
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Last Updated 09 November 2017
Hoping to contribute to the ‘conversation’ about death in a time of rapid medical advancement, Jon Spooner and Chris Thorpe’s Am I Dead Yet? will leave you asking yourself the same question.
Opening with Spooner and Thorpe lip syncing inexplicably in their underwear, the performance is then split into two storylines that are delivered so tediously as to need more than a defibrillator to get them going. The trite stories do nothing to convey the important messages and deep emotions alluded to in the lengthy programme handed out at the beginning.
The storylines are interspersed with songs that are incomprehensible due to poor sound balancing but the performers seem to enjoy them as they fire in-jokes to each other across the stage. Light relief is provided in the form of a London Ambulance Service paramedic who delivers a two-minute CPR demonstration with more comedy than the other 58 minutes of the show. The stated aims of this piece are worthy but are totally lost amongst the sloppy timing and technical mishaps of a badly constructed performance that should be left in theatrical purgatory.
Am I Dead Yet?, The Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, W1D 3NE. £14, until 18 November.
