Home Death

Synopsis

"I didn't know. I didn't know what dying looks like. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to help him." In our materialist culture obsessed with youth, death has become the ultimate taboo. Inspired by real life stories, Home Death is an unflinching yet ultimately uplifting dissection of how our society deals with the reality of dying. 64% of us want to die at home, but in reality only a quarter of us do. A lingering death in a nursing home is one of the biggest fears of the elderly, and yet research from the UK thinktank Demos predicts that by 2013, 90% of us will die in the soulless setting of a hospital ward. Home Death is a courageous and profoundly compassionate new play that raises essential and urgent questions about palliative care in the UK, and celebrates the strength of friendship and love.

Our Review:

19 July 2011

Death, the great leveller, comes to us all eventually. Oxford Don, jazz singer, mother, father, friend; there will eventually be a last breath for all. Statically told and relying on old-fashioned storytelling, seven deaths and their preludes materialise on the Finborough stage in Nell Dunn’s Home Death.

All cancer, all diagnosed terminal, it is a mixed bag of experiences with only one thing in common: all die at home. The good is preceded by the bad, is followed by the gentle, is abutted by the abandoned in time of need. Nell’s script doesn’t shy away from the ugly truths, nor does she gloss the better moments with unnecessary sugar.

And amongst all the themes, of love, of dying, of dignity, of fear, is a clear message of what a difference the professionals trained in end of life care make to the experience, both for the patient and the loved ones. There were only positive words for the Marie Curie Cancer Care nurses mentioned...

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