Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Iain Hopkins, Gemma Banks, Christopher Rae.

Nobody has the monopoly on grief, nobody feels the dejection in the same way as anybody else and nobody should ever dictate to another human being just how long grief should ever take to get through the system. When a person loses someone either close to them or someone they may have only known through the public eye of the media, what they feel upon that person’s departure is real to them and in the end it takes a friend just sit and listen and occasionally talk in which the inconsolable and heartbroken can work through the five stages of grief.

Rose Of June is inspired by the research of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, for Stack Theatre it is a play of undeniable tension, charm, superbly directed anguish and desolation. The whole cast shines and its director, the astoundingly creative Natasia Bullock comes out with the biggest set of plaudits against her name possible and in which proves once and for all what a genuine talent, and theatrical asset, to Liverpool she is.

Grief is something that has no time limit upon it, it can wallow in the pit of the stomach for years and the longer it takes someone to get through the five stages of grief, the harder it is for that person to ever believe that Time is the great leveller, that, to paraphrase Dylan Thomas, Time is the only entity with dominion over Death.

For Sam and his two friends, Daniel and Emily, grief is working upon all three of them as they come to terms with the loss of a wife and companion. For Sam, played with a domineering beauty by Christopher Rae, the near-sudden death of his wife has hit home hard, he is lost and bereft, open to suggestions but wanting the answers to be given him in such a way that is more of comfort than by hard questions. It is a hard thing to perform such an introverted emotion such as grief with any sort of justice to the play and yet Christopher Rae brings the negativity of the person left behind, the unbearable isolation that seeps through at the darkest of times in such a way that it captivates the audience completely.

For the cast of Rose of June, the hard hitting despondency and how each one deals with the shackle of grief, is one in which will be difficult to top as an experience. For Natasia Bullock, it is yet another stepping stone on the way to a very bright future.

There is no time scale for grief, but for the feeling of pleasure in seeing a play rivet feelings so diverse so closely to the heart, delight is something much easier to reconcile with. A genuinely good play to be a part of!

Ian D. Hall