In Seven Days, playing until March 2 at London’s Grand Theatre, is billed as “a comedy about death.” That’s somewhat miscast.
To be sure, playwright Jordi Mand‘s characters wrestle with death in the same way that Jacob, the Hebrew patriarch, wrestled with the angel at Peniel in the first book of the Jewish Torah. And there are comedic moments: about childhood antics, about culturally correct bagels, about parental expectations of their children, and so on.
But In Seven Days is no more “about death” than Grow, the musical that had its world premiere on the Grand stage in April 2022, is about marijuana. Yes, those themes are prominent. And yes, both scripts were birthed in their writers’ imaginations by recent changes in Canadian law. However, like Grow, Mand’s script deals just as much with the messiness of family relationships, the clashes of secular and religious cultures, the concern of parents for their loved ones’ prospects, and the secrets we decide to reveal or keep from those closest to us. Like a good Torte Napoleon, the sweet complexity lies in the layers.
Set in London, Ont., In Seven Days takes us into the home of a Jewish family, just as daughter Rachel, flustered by a series of minor tribulations, arrives for what was to be an uneventful weekend visit with her ill and widowed father, Sam, and his partner, Shelley. Rachel soon learns that her father, suffering from a cancer that has spread from his prostate to his bones, has chosen to end his battle with chronic pain through medical assistance in dying (MAiD), to be delivered by a doctor from University Hospital. Rachel is horrified, as is Eli, their rabbi and family friend. Both argue with Sam about his need to change his mind — Rachel as a daughter, convinced that the right treatment could yet prolong Sam’s life; and Eli, as the spiritual leader of the local Reform synagogue, whose congregation still largely regards MAiD as murder and anyone present, when it’s administered, to be an accomplice. To further complicate matters, Darren, Rachel’s deejay boyfriend, makes the two-and-a-half-hour trip to be try to be of use or comfort to the family, despite the fact his relationship with Rachel is teetering.
Death is not the only passage with which the play deals. As we ride along the bumpy road toward some sort of certainty about Sam’s ultimate choice, we brush up against a host of others: single-parent childhood, career choice, marriage, pregnancy and inheritance, among them. Those themes provide a rich, vivid palette with which to tell a relatable, relevant story.
One of the show’s important conceits doesn’t quite work. As a sufferer of incurable cancer, Sam declares himself to be in so much pain and suffering that the option of ending his life seems the only realistic one. Yet his ability to move around his home, with the help of a pair of canes, seems manageable. His voice is strong; his memory, sense of humour and caustic wit are unimpeded. He jokes. He sings. He raids the refrigerator for late-night ice cream. In the real world, he would likely not, in this moment, meet the requirement of being in “an advanced state of irreversible decline in capability.”
Shaina Silver-Baird gives a frenetic performance as the anxiety addled Rachel, while Mairi Babb, as Shelley, is nearly the polar opposite, so serene and understated is her character of the partner of a dying man. Ralph Small, as Eli, offers the sturdiest and most convincing turn among the cast. He appears every inch the philosophical rabbi who might stop by Sam’s home between his work at the synagogue and Hebrew school. By the time Sam arrives at his final decision, it is almost anticlimactic — so engrossed (or maybe distracted) have we become in a series of other mini-dramas unfolding in the lives of the other characters.
In Seven Days is a brave attempt by Mand to explore a timely, controversial topic with balance, empathy and love. Theatregoers will need to approach it as such. It’s not so much an evening’s entertainment as it is a jumping-off point for introspection and conversation about the issues at hand. As such, it succeeds. But it also represents a programming risk for the Grand, whose audiences historically tend to prefer lighter fare or, when controversial, deal with subjects not quite as close to home as their own mortality.
To push the show’s bagel motif a pinch past its limit, In Seven Days is a good schmear: crusty on the outside, tender and warm within, topped with unrelenting honesty.
In Seven Days
By Jordi Mand
Directed by Philip Akin
A world premiere
Sprint Stage, The Grand Theatre
471 Richmond St., London, Ontario
Until March 2, 2024
Tickets: http://www.grandtheatre.com
Greenwin Theatre, Meridian Arts Centre
5040 Yonge St., Toronto, Ontario
May 4-16, 2024
Tickets: http://www.hgjewishtheatre.com
ArtsBeat 