2015AMIDEAD_TR“Death is no longer a moment. It’s a process. A process that can be reversed.” So reads the description for Unlimited Theatre’s Am I Dead Yet, a two-hander by well-known performers Chris Thorpe and Jon Spooner that studies all things dead, dying and deadly, in the guise of a late night cabaret set. The audience enters and are handed a small card asking them how they believe they’ll die, some of which are integrated later into the show. From the off, Am I Dead Yet asks us to throw off our fear around the taboo of death, and encourages us to look our conceptions and expectations of death in the face, with calm amusement and intellectual curiosity.

Thorpe and Spooner manage this deftly and conscientiously. Their relationship is easy and friendly, and this translates to their interaction with their audience, greatly benefiting the atmosphere of supportive comfort that is apparent from the beginning of the piece – and which, considering the subject matter, helps both the piece and the audience. Their delivery is direct, interpersonal and immediate – the size of Traverse 2’s stage makes the audience feel very little isolation from Thorpe and Spooner – and their performances are as admirable as they are varied.

They demonstrate skill in the range of cabaret-style skits they perform. These include a moshing session, a song reminiscent of the music of I Am Kloot and other Madchester-inspired Mancunian bands, and an improvised song at the end that integrates the audience responses to the question posed to them as they entered, and which sees the audience engage en masse in singing: “Oh, I think I’ll die; oh, I know I’ll die.” Thorpe and Spooner effectively navigate the coldest of subjects with warmth and humour, and their range of talents are well showcased.

The production follows three end-of-life stories –  a suicide, a girl playing on a frozen lake, and two men waiting to die sometime in the distant future –  and these stories are handled elegantly, carefully bouncing between dark humour and moments of intensity and solemnity where needed. The stories together construct an arc that interrogates the fine line between ‘alive’ and ‘dead’, questioning whether death really is the ultimate end, or simply part of a process. Dystopian elements (is comfortable death in the future the sole luxury of the wealthy?) add a more serious, slightly politicised note that will appeal to some.

To a great extent, Am I Dead Yet is a dexterous, intelligent and funny show, which cleverly and gently approaches death, the ultimate taboo. Audiences will find joy in the cabaret-style variety elements, such as the multi-instrumental outings, improvised components and audience engagement, as well as Thorpe and Spooner’s performances themselves. The production does still feel somewhat unfinished, however, and sometimes comes across as somewhat segmented; it could do with some narrative polishing and some general tweaking to achieve more sense of being a consistent whole. That said, perhaps its unresolvedness is precisely its charm, and maybe without its openness, light touch and slight silliness it wouldn’t be the enjoyable excursion into the realms of death that it manages to be.

Am I Dead Yet played at the Traverse Theatre as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. For more information, see the Edinburgh Fringe website.