Originally published by L.S. Media. February 16th 2011.

Cast: Sarah Belcher, Dan Ford, Katie Lightfoot, Matt Tate, Neal Craig.

There is only one way to describe Analogue’s production of Beachy Head and that is shockingly powerful, a play that will have audiences leaving the theatre having their perceptions changed about the way we look at the way someone takes their own life.

The Unity Theatre once more played perfect host to a troupe of actors and a story that is swept under the carpet and not discussed openly in any home. The intimacy of the stage reflecting perfectly how the main character of Stephen Mitchell, played with stunning grace by Dan Ford, and his story, as told initially by the other actors on the stage.

From the opening scene the audience were given statistics on death by Sarah Belcher who portrayed world weary pathologist Dr. Rachel Sampson, her counting of the half seconds as she showed how one person dies in that time world wide was brutally honest and yet done with care and poise as if mindful of how far the audience would allow the subject matter to flow.

The story follows a couple of film makers who accidently come across an eight second image of a man jumping to his death at Beachy Head and their reaction as they go from shocked to tracking down the man’s widow and their attempt to make a documentary film about the man’s life and more importantly what happens to those that are left behind.

Much praise should be left at the writer’s door for the accurate and sensitive way that this type of human tragedy can have devastating effect on others. The one moment in particular is the scene where the audience learns the significance of the phone box at Beachy Head and what led Stephen to call the Samaritans from there. It was with a lump in the throat that we see the man have his final conversation with the disembodied woman’s voice at the other end of the line.

To some audience members the subject matter could be seen as controversial, it is no less a dramatic piece of theatre and it focuses perfectly on the one death in 9000 that can never be truly answered by science.

A brilliant piece of theatre.

Ian D. Hall