Please Don't Cry (At My Funeral)

115270 original

When Josie Dale-Jones and Isabel Della-Porta first played at the Zoo Southside with their whimsical production Everything's Everywhere, one critic praised their talent, but idly wished for something more 'substantial'. Naturally, the exuberant duo decided to spend the next year crafting a play about death. This was to be Please Don't Cry (At My Funeral), a poignant tale about a divided family reunited by tragedy and childhood innocence. The show was even advertised as such...until mid-July, when they suddenly dumped in the entire script.

Rather than pulling out of the Fringe (a fate which would have mirrored the death at the centre of the play), Dale-Jones and Della-Porta decided to rebuild the show around how their original plan fell apart, almost wrecking their close real-life friendship into the process. What results is a multilayered meditation on the interplay between reality and fiction and an insightful demonstration into the creative process. If this sounds dry, don't be fooled: Dale-Jones and Della-Porta have such an effusive, inclusive presence that you'll have no trouble sharing their youthful passion for the power of the theatre.

True, some of the show's themes could be explored in greater depth, but questions of life and art are never going to be settled in 60 minutes. What matters is the connection Dale-Jones and Della-Porta make with the audience, the honesty with which they present their story and the wit with which they tell it. If they were aiming for substance, then they have easily achieved their goal.