Little Lark of London

“Are we ready to be buried ourselves?”

When entering the theatre for Bury Me, written and directed by Mina Moniri, you are greeted with a projection of a clementine projected onto the backwall, rotating and shining line the sun. Once the audience is seated, we are immediately thrown into a funeral, a sharp and dark contrast compared to the bright citrus fruit. The plot of Bury Me is certainly an interesting one – Nadia’s [Gillian Konko] brother, Noah [Peter Todd], has passed away, but that’s only where the family’s problems begin. Everyone is seated for the funeral, but one person is missing – Noah. Because of a clerical error, the funeral home cannot locate his body, and Nadia is left desperately trying to find him.

The show switches between two times – one section is taking place during Noah’s funeral, with younger sister Nina [Juliette Imbert] left to handle the relatives, including Aunt Louise [Eleanor Dunlop], who has decided to do some tarot card readings for attendees to pass the time. This is when Nadia is searching for Noah’s body, leaving the funeral to go to Battersea to confront the funeral home herself. In flashbacks, we are shown snippets of Noah’s life as he struggles with tumours in his lungs, constantly having to go to the hospital and receive multiple surgeries. 

One of the highlights of the show is the sibling dynamic created by not only Konko and Todd but Imbert as well. They all annoy each other and fight, but they all still have a deep love for one another that causes them all pain as Noah fights his illness. Throughout the show, clementines represent the love between the siblings, a symbol that returns in both “current time” and flashbacks. I particularly enjoyed the moments in which Nadia and Noah were alone in Noah’s room, sitting on his bed and sharing clementines as they discussed their futures.

Unfortunately, where Bury Me fails a little is in its definition as a “comedy-drama,” as while there are some funny moments during the show, they are few and far between in comparison to grief and heartache. It may be better defined as a tragedy with hope interspersed throughout. The show also drags a bit, which is not helped by the fact that it ran over fifteen minutes past its set runtime. The sound effects were also not very useful and at times a bit annoying and cheesy, making me wish that they had simply not been used at all. 

While the main three siblings are fleshed out, the rest of the characters are just given brief roles with very little character development. Noah’s girlfriend, played by Dunlop, only appears in a few scenes as basically an assistant to Nadia, with very little moments between her and Noah. The characters that Fitzroy “Pablo” Wickham play, including Richard from Ready, Set Funeral Homes and Uncle Charlie, are infuriating, and credit must be given to Wickham for managing to portray these characters that may appear cheery on the outside but are absolutely useless. The family members at the funeral are fun, but pretty much only used for comedy content, not for anything truly impactful on the story. 

Ultimately, Bury Me is an interesting play that explores the different ways in how people work through their grief and the loss of a loved one, focusing on how one life can affect those around them, even after death. With some cuttings and some added comedic bits, it could truly grow to become a solid “comedy-drama.”
Bury Me ran as a part of the Riverside Studios Bitesize Festival. For more information about the festival, click here.