| What: To Life with Love by Mike van Graan Performer: John Maytham Direction and design: Josh Lindberg When: February 3-8, 2025 at 7.30pm Where: Artscape Innovation Lounge Bookings: Webtickets Duration: 65 min; no interval |
To Life with Love: I love the title of this new play by Mike Van Graan which is on in the Artscape Innovation Lounge from February 3-8, 2025. The one-hander is performed by performed by John Maytham and directed (and designed) by Josh Lindberg. To Life with Love is a beautifully rendered mediation on life, end of life and how to live meaningfully and transcend grief and disappointment. Short run, so this is a quickie review.
Maytham commissioned van Graan โto write him a one-person play with a blank canvas regarding themesโ. In writing, van Graan was inspired by Atul Gawandeโs Being Mortal and Helena Dolnyโs book, Before Ever After. I am a big fan of Gawande, an American surgeon who has written extensively about mortality, end of life situations and above all embracing dignity for elderly and people living with life threatening diseases. One of Gawandeโs leitmotifs is that it is very personal. We do not know what we will do, until we are faced with situations.
In the play, we see Thomas Michael Faulkner (Maytham) who is in his sixties and is dealing with his own mortality in the wake of personal loss. The life that he had planned out has unravelled and he has to recalibrate his new reality and his connections to others, particularly his family. It means a hard look at his identity – who he is now. Maytham is an extraordinary actor, with his voice and body conveying the conflicts as Faulkner does a deep dive into his past life and future life. Faulkner is flummoxed by how his plans for growing old have been scrubbed. And what does that mean for him?
What comes across palpably through van Graanโs writing and Maythamโs performance is the sheer terror and fear that accompanies the advent of illness โ for the diagnosed and those in the ambit. It is terrifying. Maytham nails it in his visceral portrayal โ through his body as vector of pain.
Van Graanโs writing is exquisite. Direction (and design) by Josh Lindberg ignites the one hander with energy as Maytham prowls around the space, shifting between three chairs on the stark stage. The text is lyrical, reflective and threaded with mirth. To Life with Love is a poignant and tender story – a love story – spousal, family, community.
โณ John Maytham performs in To Life with Love by Mike van Graan.
