After Party

After Party gathers an elderly actress and her family for one final party before she undergoes assisted dying, with the occasion opening up years of family trauma and rivalry. The result is a two-act family drama about death, motherhood, marriage and the various ways families fail to talk to one another.

There is plenty here theatrically. The staging is beautiful, and the acting is fantastic, particularly Alison Peebles as Vivienne. There is a large, capable cast, and the dysfunctional family is convincingly drawn.

But two acts and two hours is simply too long for a Fringe piece, particularly when the play does not feel as though it has enough beef to justify the length. The material could have done more with the time it had, done the same thing in less time, or, ideally, done more with less time. Several of the family subplots feel like diversions from the central question rather than ways of deepening it.

More importantly, I did not feel I gained that much from the family rivalry in terms of understanding assisted dying or what it means. For a play built around such an interesting and timely premise, that felt like a missed opportunity.

Enjoyable, beautifully staged, but largely unimaginative.

After Party by Traverse Theatre in co-production with Paines Plough and Belgrade Theatre.