How does one cope with the loss of a beloved person? The varied reactions to this negative experience have a huge range: Joy Stone, for instance, has a really hard time simply to last while she is waiting for things to get better after her lover's death. The counter-productive "help" of shallow therapists, anti-depressanta and obnoxious friends steers her close to the verge of insanity. Don and Janette, on the other hand, were married for ages, ending it with a very ugly separation. Coincidently meeting 20 years later for the first time, their feelings still seem to be raw - they abuse each other as anything from child molester to concentration camp doctor. Or finally, Melissa and Andrew whose relationship throughout their lives is conducted mostly by writing letters. Only after her death does Andrew realise the full extent of his feeling for eccentric and sharptongued Melissa.
Bereavement, the feeling after the death of or the separation from a beloved person might feel as if an organ is ripped out of your body, might leave you feeling dysfunctional, crippled, desperate, suicidal, resentful or isolated. But then, it might just as well lead you to selfknowledge, it might force you to come to honest terms with yourself.
The Trick is to Keep Breathing is an approach to portray life as a constant wave between love and loss, between hope and bereavement. In the fashion of an assemblage the play contrasts and interweaves fates and situations of people living places and different times. The literary basis for the production are texts from such authors as Janice Galloway (Scotland), Joe Pintauro, A.R. Gurney and Tennessee Williams (U.S.).
Directed by: Maja Mann and Lars Schüler
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