When I came home after seeing 7 Stories, and tried to explain the concept to my wife, she thought I was crazy.
A comedy — about suicide?
“Are you sure it was a comedy?” she asked, at least twice. Maybe more.
It’s a dark comedy, but it is a comedy.
Suicide, by itself, isn’t funny. And I say that as someone who, in 2017, lost a friend to suicide and nearly lost a relative, who was saved by a timely visit. But, as a story that revolves around the concept, the consideration, of suicide — and maybe more than that — 7 Stories is legitimately humorous.
The central character of Morris Panych’s play is a man who has been driven to climb to the ledge outside the seventh storey of an apartment building and is considering jumping, for reasons we don’t find out until the end of the play. During his time up there, he encounters several residents, who pop out of the seven windows that face the ledge.
Unfortunately, and usually inaccurately, suicidal people are thought of as “crazy,” but it turns out that, in this case at least, the people that our protagonist — The Man — encounters during his time on the ledge are much, much crazier than he is.
Various residents of the seventh floor are losing their grip on reality, unfathomably self-absorbed, pretending to be someone they aren’t, locked in a mutually destructive relationship…these individuals make our protagonist seem perfectly even-keeled.
Brandon Newall is perfectly cast as The Man, an Everyman, albeit apparently suicidal, who may be the sanest person in the show. The rest of the cast is excellent as well, although standouts include Nick Millar as Al, a resident of the building and apparent scenester who is hosting a party but who is more interested in the next, better party that comes along; and Angie Brockhurst as Mrs. Wright, a centenarian who is definitely eccentric, and possibly senile, but is also the only person who appears to consider The Man’s plight, and either gives him the worst or best advice about how to proceed.
Remaining performances of the play are on Thursday, April 19, Friday, April 20, and Saturday, April 21, all at 7 p.m., at the theatre in Cowichan Secondary School’s Quamichan Campus. Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for seniors and students, and are available at Ten Old Books in Duncan, Mason’s Store in Shawnigan Lake, and online at eventbrite.ca
And if you find yourself on a seventh-storey ledge, metaphorical or otherwise, the Vancouver Island Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day at 1-888-494-3888.
