POST-MORTEM

Remember teenage love? Obsessive and knotted together. Nancy (Essie Barrow) and Alex met in biology class dissecting a pig heart. They shared secrets, comic books, and classic Dido songs. They believed their love was eternal. Until they broke it. Now, reunited ten years later at their mutual friends’ wedding, another dissection begins.

Nancy and Alex are forced to confront their comforting myths and mismatching memories to unpack what really happened when their lives shattered all those years before. Who hurt who, and who is holding on too tightly to that trauma?

Post-Mortem is an unflinching, complex, and comedic look at the giddy joy of young love, its fragments, the trauma which outlives it, and the lies we tell ourselves when love ends.

Award winning playwright, Iskandar إسكندر R. bin Sharazuddin turns the typical two-hander on its head with the show’s intimate fusion of dance, physical theatre, and gripping new writing. Emotionally complex and recognisable characters wrought with sharp writing, combine with strong onstage chemistry, evocative movement sequences and a nuanced design, to take us deep into the hearts and heads of the protagonists.

Trailer

Partners and Support

Post Mortem Partner Logos

16 – 20 April 2019: The Space.
05 – 26 August 2019: Assembly Festival, Edinburgh Fringe.
24 January – 01 February 2020: The Blue Room Theatre.
11 – 23 February 2020: Holden Street Theatres.

Creative team

A co-production with 45North

Written by:		Iskandar إسكندر R. bin Sharazuddin
Direction:		Jessica Rose McVay
Production Design:		Eleanor Bull
Sound and Lighting Design:		William Alder
Production Management:		Renae O’Neill (Australia)
Stage Management:		杉本 Nemo Martin (Edinburgh)
		Dominque Duvall (Australia)
Graphic Design:		Katie Gabriel Allen
Images & Media:		Jack Parker
		Luke Tubbs

Cast

Alex:		Iskandar إسكندر R. bin Sharazuddin
Nancy:		Essie Barrow

Special thanks: Elliott Cook, Imogen Irving, and Kate Chambers.

Reviews

	★★★★★ Three Weeks Edinburgh	★★★★ Broadway Baby
	★★★★★ Everything Theatre	★★★★ The List
	★★★★★ The Mumble	★★★★ Edinburgh Culture Review
	★★★★★ Sue in the Stalls	★★★★ Perth Walkabout
	★★★★★ Gutter Culture	★★★★ Fringe Feed
	★★★★★ Pelican Magazine	★★★★ The Advertiser
	★★★★½ Glam Adelaide	★★★★ Spy in the Stalls
	★★★★ Isolated Nation	★★★★ InDaily
	★★★★ Eventalaide	★★★★ Fourth Wall Media

“Something original and remarkable.” – Broadway World

“Sharazuddin and Barrow have fantastic chemistry; together they weave an astoundingly complex relationship within the first half of the performance alone. Far from being dead on arrival, Post-Mortem is smart, tender, and captivating theatre.” – The List, Edinburgh

“Post-Mortem is one of those pieces that offers up more the longer it is thought about and reflected upon. In performance it all happens rather quickly and it is easy to miss just how ingenious some of it is. It is also a delight just to sit back admire the movement and be drawn into the story. This post mortem is full of life.” – Broadway Baby

“Sharazuddin is a stunning wordsmith, effortlessly weaving comedy in the very thread of a complex psychological analysis. Far from being superficial, this is an open-hearted invitation to appreciate male fragility and the malfunctioning dynamics that earn them the accusations of ‘behaving like a man’. A feast for the eyes and for the soul.” – Everything Theatre

“The scenes cycle between dialogue, dance, and monologue, and in moods from humorous joy to morbid sadness. Every moment feels believable and as a whole fit together like a tile mosaic. Post Mortem was like eating a bar of dark chocolate, rich and sweet as young love with bitter notes of loss and grief.” – Mumble Theatre