Jenna (Livy Pothoff, center) sounds off on her family in Colder Than Here. Photo courtesy of the Albion Theatre.
How high is your tolerance for existential dread? Need a little comedy to balance out your meditations of life and death? The Albion Theatre Company has just the ticket: Laura Wade’s smartly written, briskly paced and moving Colder Than Here. The one-act play may tread familiar ground—mother is dying of a terminal illness, family must find a way to cope—but it transcends the clichés of dramedy and tells a powerful, resonant story.
Meet the Bradley family. Alec (David Wassilak) is a stuffy classical music buff who cannot fix anything around the house, but has no shortage of sarcastic quips for the repairmen. Harriet (Anna Langdon) is the responsible older daughter who organizes spice cabinets and never fights with her boyfriend (singular) for more than 30 minutes. Jenna (Livy Pothoff) is the… creative… daughter who’s had many fights with many boyfriends and is a reliable source of dinner table controversy. And Myra (Susan Wylie) is the kind, clever matriarch who keeps them all together. A fatal cancer diagnosis will test her optimism and the bonds between her, her husband and her daughters.
The play begins with Myra and Jenna on a picnic. The two discuss Jaffa cakes, the overratedness of sandwiches, and the importance of strategic bathroom locations. In time, the awkward humor passes and the audience must confront a stark reality: Myra and Jenna are touring a burial site because Myra only has a few months left. When the next scene shifts to the Bradley family living room, we’re treated to a discussion between Alec and Harriet about a badly dressed cellist at a Brahms concert. What seems tangential is part of a larger theme—talk about something, anything, other than… that thing.
Colder Than Here balances its bittersweet pathos with plenty of comic sugar and spice. Just witness Myra’s earnest attempt to plan her funeral via PowerPoint—the end result is vintage late nineties. With months left to live, the woman still found the time to add swipe transitions and sound effects—a testament to her will.
Another source of unexpected comic relief is Myra’s eco-friendly cardboard coffin (which you can put together yourself!)—the rest of the family is, shall we say, skeptical. But what begins as a joke becomes a reminder of the family’s impending loss—one which literally takes up their living room. In one scene, Alec trades barbs over the phone with his nemesis, the boiler repairman, while pacing about the room. He walks into Myra’s coffin and stands there for several minutes. Realization slowly dawns—something unthinkably sad has become so normal, almost mundane.
Colder Than Here’s four roles have roughly the same number of lines; each of these roles is a complex mosaic of unresolved emotions. Thankfully, Albion Theatre Company has assembled a talented and experienced cast. Ms. Wylie, Ms. Langdon and Mr. Wassilak all have previous experience with Albion Theatre Company. I first saw Wylie in their 2024 production of Woman in Mind, where she played a perpetually flustered sister-in-law; I was impressed by her range in the larger, more nuanced role of Myra.
Each of the actors delivers their dialogue in a rich, impressively fluent central English dialect, including Ms. Pothoff (a first-time performer with Albion Theatre). The messy but passionate Jenna has one of the fullest arcs of any character. Audiences will root for her as she comes to terms with an eating disorder, ends a dysfunctional relationship, and prepares to say goodbye to her mum.
The family dramedy’sbrisk pace requires quick scenic changes. Instead of swapping between burial sites and the Bradley living room, the creative team placed their living room square in the middle. Scenes will shift from the burial sites to the left and the right, back to the Bradley living room in the center. The design may seem cluttered at first, but it provides a visual reminder of that central theme; no matter what the Bradley family does, thoughts of Myra’s death are never far away. Warm lighting helps the audience focus on the mini-set for that particular scene and adds beauty and brightness to the darkest moments.
Colder Than Here runs from now until Sunday, June 29. Performances are held at the Kranzberg Black Box Theatre (501 N. Grand Blvd.) on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8:00 PM. A Sunday matinee takes place at 2:00 PM. Ticket can be purchased through Metrotix; prices range from $24-34 (plus fees). The play is performed in nine scenes with no intermission, so take some advice from this reviewer and think twice about that second preshow cocktail. Then again, a little gin and tonic may brace you for this heavy (but ultimately hopeful) story of love and loss—shot through with that quintessentially English black humour. | Rob Von Nordheim
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