Laura Wade's debut play made huge waves on its West End debut a couple of years back, and it's easy to see why. We've got three stories, all about someone dealing with the emotional upheaval of discovering a dead body; we soon realise that these tales are interwoven, and the ensuing sleuth work of who-did-what-to-whom is one of tonight's many pleasures. There's a hotel chambermaid on her cleaning round; a violent abusive couple whose weekend implodes with the discovery of a corpse under a bush; and a storage boss who slides into a mumbling despair after finding a body in one of his units. Wade's tremendous script crackles with life throughout, and don't let the presence of death fool you - this play is not just finely observed, it's very funny an awful lot of the time. What's more it builds a kind of emotional forcefield, making you care attentively about each character.

The second half of this happy equation is a nerveless set of performances from Bristolians Plain Clothes Theatre. Unfair, perhaps, to single out, but Georgina Carey's mad-eyed, tinderbox-tempered Elaine is one of the most arresting performances I've seen in a while and no-one is far behind. The evening cracks along at a great pace too, with a nervy urgency throughout, and language so sharp and subtle it has you hanging on for every next line. Constantly unexpected, gripping, lifelike and not a cliché in site. Brilliant.
(Steve Wright, Venue Magazine, No.755)

 

Bristol University graduate Laura Wade is one of the country's most talented young playwrights. This production, local theatre company Plain Clothes' second visit to the Alma Tavern following last April's 'Problem Child / Criminal Genius' double bill, is only the third time her 2005 play 'Breathing Corpses' has ever been staged. But, given the taut dialogue and confidently constructed plot, it certainly won't be the last.

Plain Clothes' work is just as impressive as the source material. The opening scene is perfectly paced and, like the following scenes, hinges on the discovery of a dead body, with apparent links between the three corpses emerging. Some of the characters are a little undeveloped, but that's a small price to pay for a narrative that moves inexorably to a delightfully enigmatic climax.

The intimate Alma Tavern theatre is the perfect place to see this show, but both 'Breathing Corpses' and Plain Clothes are destined for bigger things. Future productions will have a hard act to follow.
(Evening Post, 28/02/2007)

This dark work is a return to student roots in Bristol for Laura Wade, a promising young playwright who has already won three awards for the 2005 Royal Court production of the same play, including a share of the prestigious George Devine Award. Plain Clothes Theatre Productions have been Bristol-based for the last two years too, after something of a peripatetic life in London and Canada, and this is a bold, contemporary choice for their second contribution to pub theatre in the city.

Wade’s play is a mini-variation on Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde, but with death rather than sex as the catalyst. Three separate discoveries of corpses in varying states of decay appear random events at first, but are cleverly linked by five scenes of varying impact. The middle two, in which Wade explores elements of sado-masochism and then mental breakdown caused by sexual stimulation from a dead body, demonstrate just how skilled she is at building tension and exploring unusual relationships. However, the other three episodes, despite some welcome touches of humour, are disappointingly underwritten and altogether too thin in content.

Ashley Callum and Charlotte Ellis create moments of drama right at the end, as a smooth-talking hotel guest and his chambermaid victim, but the best acting comes from Georgina Carey and Tom Turner as the couple who cannot escape their brutal behaviour towards each other, and David Angus as the businessman in anguish at his reaction to the reality of death.
(Jeremy Brien, The Stage website)

Laura Wade's sparkling dialogue lights up Plain Clothes Theatre's production of 'Breathing Corpses', a grim play about discovering dead bodies. Though it's divided into three separate character studies, Wade's clever cyclical structure ties the story together. David Angus is particularly strong as Jim, an anguished businessman whose relationship deteriorates after discovering a murdered young woman in one of his storage units. It's not consistently fantastic - the troubles of a warring, violent couple are less well developed - but with a seven-strong ensemble cast performing in a venue as intimate as this, 'Breathing Corpses' is engaging and accessible contemporary theatre.
(John Holmes, Metro, 22/02/2007)

"Hot young playwright Laura Wade seems obsessed with death." Thus began one review of Laura Wade's 'Breathing Corpses' when the play opened, to considerable fanfare, at London's Royal Court Theatre in 2005.

Of the reviewer's two claims, one is indisputably true. Laura Wade is indeed a 'hot young playwright'. Y'see, two years ago - and not long after finishing her drama degree at Bristol University - Wade found herself in the unusual position of having both her first and second plays performed simultaneously in the West End. Both plays were lionised by the critics and a year later Wade had a Most Promising Playwright Award on the mantelpiece. A strong start, in short.

But the obsession with death? That, too, seems a fair comment when you look at the content of Wade's first two plays. 'Breathing Corpses', which Bristol audiences can now see for the first time, centres around three separate characters who each stumble upon a dead body in unexpected circumstances. 'Colder Than Here', meanwhile, brought us a terminally ill woman organising her funeral while her husband tried to get the boiler mended so his wife wouldn't die in the cold.

"I wouldn't say I was obsessed by death - but certainly I am fascinated by it", admits Laura. "I think death is wonderfully fertile ground for theatre, because theatre is at its most exciting when confronting the things we all experience - and things we find frightening or prefer to ignore. It worries me when people find it strange or unnerving that a young woman might chose to write about death, as if that necessarily springs from an unhealthy morbid world-view. I think it's more unhealthy to ignore the presence of death in our lives."

So. Three characters: three dead bodies. The template for 'Breathing Corpses' sounds simple but, Laura warns, it's a little more complex than that. "It's got a gothic flavour, but also elements of a mystery or a thriller. It story unfolds in a series of scenes with a non-linear timeline, and it asks audiences to do some work to piece the plot together. One critic described it as being a bit like an MC Escher picture - look closely and you'll see it's not what it first appears."

The play's now getting its first run in Bristol, courtesy of local company Plain Clothes, who bought us a very decent double bill of gritty black comedies at the Alma last year. Laura's own memories of the city are fond. "I loved Bristol" she says. "I found the arts scene in the city very lively - so much going on, and a great mix of classical and experimental work being produced for a very culturally aware audience with a real spirit of enquiry."

Although it may seem somewhat death obsessed, '...Corpses', says Laura, is actually about life. Or, more accurately, how to live. "The characters are all trying to work out how to be happy despite what life has thrown at them. I'm starting to notice, the more I continue to write, that my plays are often concerned with those life changing moments. It's exciting to be with a character at one of those moments - too see how they deal with it, and consider how we might cope were we in the same position."

LAUREATE OF DOOM?
Guardian critic Michael Billington, in his review of 'Breathing Corpses' dubbed Wade the 'laureate of doom'. "It's a great phrase, and of course it felt wonderfully legitimising at the time, as if I'd been given a special badge to wear," Laura says. "But the phrase came about because I had two plays produced in London in the same month, both with death as their subject.

"I've written several plays since and they have been about other things - although, I suppose, always with the same kind of black humour. I think it can seem as if the world-view in my plays is a little bleak - but I personally have a real optimism which I find hard to conceal in my writing. There's usually a glint, if not a glimmer of hope somewhere."
(Steve Wright, Venue Magazine, No.753)

Laura Wade won't deny 'Breathing Corpses' is the product of a morbid fascination. "It's the fascination with death as something we choose to ignore that I really find worthy of examination," the playwright reveals. "It's not necessarily right to ignore the presence of death in the world. Some people think it's unhealthy to think and write about it, but I think it's more unhealthy not to."

Now being revived by Bristol's Plain Clothes Theatre Productions, Breathing Corpses debuted in London at the Royal Court Theatre in 2005, featuring a high-profile cast led by former EastEnders star Tamsin Outhwaite. The production cemented Wade's meteoric rise as a playwright, opening while her first majot play, 'Colder Than Here', was still running at Soho Theatre. "I got the difficult second play out the way very quickly," Wade jokes. "The challenge, then, was to write something that wasn't about death".

Wade reveals her inspiration: "I remember reading newspaper articles with that classic structure 'body of young girl found in woods by woman walking her dog'. That's all you ever heard about the woman walking the dog. I was interested in what happened to her next, and what it might be like ro feature in that story for just a sentence and then go back to everyday life."

The three individual stories in 'Breathing Corpses' - those of a failing businessman, a lonely chamber maid and a violent girlfriend - begin with each character's gruesome discovery. Wade's clever cyclical narrative draws the separate strands together. "It was a very structural exercise. I found it was constructed very much like a house of cards," she explains.

Plain Clothes' production is directed by the Bristol company's artistic director, Sam Berger, who last year took the helm of Theatre West's 'Salt 'n' Sauce' at the Alma Tavern Pub Theatre, the Clifton venue where 'Breathing Corpses' will also be performed. As the play's first run outside London, it excites Wade. "I lived in Bristol for six years, but this is the first time in years anything I've written has been performed here,"she reveals.

Despite her personal connections to the city, she's happy to give Berger a free rein interpreting her play. "It's actually lovely turning up to watch something having had little or no involvement, and seeing your own play as a surprise," she says. Directing is something she's never seriously entertained. "I have the biggest respect in the world for directors because I couldn't do it," she continues. "I simply wouldn't have the patience, the tact or the diplomacy. I really enjoy sitting alone and writing a play, and then joining forces with a director so you've got another brain to see different things you might not have realised were there. It starts to become three-dimensional."

Since 'Breathing Corpses' Wade's plays have become less morbid; her 2006 London hits 'Other Hands' and 'Catch' dealt with emotions and identity in a world dominated by technology and corporate surveillance. But she certainly won't shy from difficult themes. "I think theatre is a really exciting medium for exploring things that we're a bit scared of," she confesses. "And for confronting things and looking into dark corners."
(Metro, John Holmes, 20/02/2007)