Double Telling have brought their stunning futuristic show Good Day to this year’s Vault Festival, and it proves an engrossing watch.
Zara, who has lived over 500 years without ageing beyond her twenties, wants to end her life. But in a society that concentrates on human life lasting forever, this isn’t as easy as she hopes.
Assigned a cheery therapist, Alex, and finding a new friend in musician Joe, will Zara change her mind, and what will be the impact on those closest to her?
This is a complex show that addresses what it means to be alive, how technology could be developed and enhanced to change our perceptions and experiences.
Good Day looks at friendships, interests, and sentience in a way that really keeps you watching, and by the end, you might find yourself deeply moved by the most unlikely of dreams that will never be fulfilled.
Annie Davidson’s Zara and Olivia Barrowclough’s Alex display a strong rapport as they develop a shorthand of friendship between human and robot. These are great performances as we feel their pain, fear, and passions.
I didn’t necessarily read Good Day as a mental health play, although there are themes about happiness, emptiness, and pointlessness. It’s about much more.
As Zara takes up with Sam Newton’s Joe, who loves her but doesn’t always understand her, the mood shifts to what the future has in store for Alex.
Writers Daniel Bainbridge and Cam Scriven have created a play that feels futuristic with its captions, calls, movement, and clever set by Justin Nardella in which two benches become a range of items as the action progresses.
A drama taking a planned euthanasia as its main focus could be a depressing watch, but Good Day is funny, warm, and clever. Marlie Haco’s direction is focused, intelligent, and compassionate.
Good Day has now finished its run at Vault Festival. For more about Double Telling, go to their website.
*****