Dealing with depression isn’t easy, writing about it must be even harder. But Matt Haig scored a best seller with a personal account of his illness in the book Reasons to Stay Alive; now brought to the stage in this co-production by English Touring Theatres and Sheffield Theatres. In the book Matt explains some of the physical symptoms of mental illness and has said that he believes treatment would improve if people recognised the connection between the two. And this is where a play will score over a book; the physical effects can be elucidated and exposed in a much more visceral way on stage than in print.
We start with a black background and a tactile, cranium-like structure the stage setting takes us into Matt’s tortured mind. We are confronted by his suffocating sense of isolation and frustration as the illness takes a grip. The actors flash through the first scenes as Matt searches for solutions, explanations, an absence of pain: a reason to stay alive.
The creative team have managed to bring some measure of the turmoil of mental illness: at times the lighting throws deep shadows as the actors move around the stage wrapped in an ethereal ambient soundscape; timelines are scrambled and scenes interlaced. Mike Noble gives a strong and credible performance in the central role as the distressed and delicate young Matt while Phil Cheadle remains calm and constant as the older Matt. Janet Etuk is solid and assured as loyal and supportive girlfriend Andrea, the counterpoint to Matt’s unsteadiness. Connie Walker and Chris Donnelly play Matt’s mum and dad comfortably but they stand out more when, along with the rest of the company, they combine in passages of physical theatre. Swirling about the stage, moving together, almost swimming, floating; in this way we might perceive the illusoriness in the workings of the mortal human psyche.
There are moments of humour teased out of the story by adaptor April De Angelis and director Johnathan Watkins; and a frightening, surreal scene with Dilek Rose as a demon on Matt’s shoulder. The story eventually shows a little brightness as Matt takes the small but significant steps along the path of recovery: his initial irrational struggle with words moves through a cathartic pleasure of books into the salvation of writing. A sudden jarring moment of exchange between older and younger Matt reminds us that the struggle against mental illness is an enduring crusade.
The written words of the book spoke to a huge audience and in this play they give a good account of events in Matt’s life, but they sometimes appear one dimensional. It’s the acting, staging and theatrical devices in the show that give us a stronger sense of who he is; that bring us closer to understanding his experiences; and can give us a real insight into the lives of the 1 in 4 people in the UK who will experience a mental health problem each year. ★★★★☆ Adrian Mantle 2nd October 2019
