REVIEW: Dignified Exit

November 12, 2024



 

Dignified Exit
Presented by Shopfront Arts Co-op
Reviewed by Eloise Aiken

Where do we go when we die? Sutherland?   

Dignified Exit is the debut of Young Company, a group of six young creatives who worked to devise this production throughout the course of the year. Every part of the production, including the writing, sound design and lighting design, were all developed by this young team. Their work culminates into a tight 60 minutes, where they blend absurdity with heart, leaving us to consider the very real question of what it means to leave this world behind and have that exit be dignified.  

The story follows six distinct characters, The Reverend (Robin Bedward), The Frenchie (Tejas Lorenco), Beth (Ollie Tagg), Conrad (Andres Sanchez), Ghostplin (Clarine Halim) and Death (Chris McLeod). And importantly, a recurring seventh character, The Old Man (Tejas Lorenco), who appears periodically in a farcical wig and with posture that parallels the floor.  

 

 

The characters are big and the energy on stage palpable, it’s clear the actors themselves are having an absolute ball. The set flicks between the ‘real world’ and ‘Death’s Waiting Room’, where we follow each character as they reckon with their past and seek to understand how their lives may manifest in the afterlife.  

In this world, Death dons a fedora and works through a divorce with his husband, Frenchie.  Whilst I was left wondering about the logistics of this marriage — perhaps a long-distance situation between worlds — it always served to be an entertaining dynamic. A particularly compelling moment was the choice to stage a fight between Frenchie and Death behind a screen so they were merely silhouettes, leaving the audience to feel like little kids listening in to a conversation not meant for them.  

 

 

 

Whilst there was a through-line throughout the production, the show is structured more like a comedic revue, which kept the pace up, and the laughs big. The performers all lean into a slapstick style comedy and embody their characters with full commitment, with a great use of both voice and physicality. It was clear some characters were more fleshed out than others, but they all worked together in a truly cohesive unit.  

The show wraps up with a literal ten-minute countdown where the characters erupt in a frenzy as they all try to decide how to leave the world — how to make their dignified exit. The show forces us as audience members to feel the anxiety that comes with confronting mortality but asks us to think about our legacy now. Perhaps it’s less about where we go, but what we’ve left behind, what we’ve created and the love that we’ve left in the world. 

 

 

The show is a credit to co-directors Lauren Oakes and Lily Hayman and is a clear passion project for everyone involved. It was heartwarming to see young creatives taking the leap and performing their own work to such a receptive audience. The jokes didn’t always land, and there were some opening night nerves, but that didn’t matter as the entire show was brimming with heart from top to bottom.  

 

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Dignified Exit was staged at Shopfront Arts Co-op from 7 - 10 November 2024. 

Images by SIX84 Photography