Brilliant ‘Hope’ cast leave us with hope

Monday, 3 February 2025

Hope, by Jenny Pattrick, Directed by Lyndee-Jane Rutherford, Circa One, Feb 1, reviewed by Sarah Catherall

What happens when a controversial government bill bans people with a terminal illness from receiving treatment in their last year of life?

In this dystopian world created by debut playwright and acclaimed novelist Jenny Pattrick, drugs which might prolong a life are only given to the terminal patients who are deemed to have more than a year left to live. In a cost-cutting move, the rest are “classifieds’’, given pain medication, but denied drugs that might give them more months or years, unless they find them on the black market.

Pattrick has published 11 novels and her first play at the age of 89 is a brilliant, thought-provoking family drama about love, death, friendship and music.

In Hope, Pattrick mines her own life while also revealing her own politics: throughout the play, there are scathing references to health cuts, and tax breaks for landlords. In the notes, she talks about a Wellington Hospital geriatrician who told her about the cost of keeping patients alive in their last year of life, and he questioned whether life should be saved at all costs. She also watched her late husband Laughton - a pianist and singing teacher - accept he had untreatable motor neurone disease and lived peacefully until he died in 2020, while her concert pianist friend, Michael Houstoun, did have hope, and successfully battled focal dystonia when at first he thought he’d never play in concerts again.

Hope throws up many ethical dilemmas, played out by a stellar cast of thespian actors.

The play opens in a dramatic scene with Adam (Jack Buchanan) standing on a bridge, considering ending his life as the acclaimed pianist has motor neurone disease and can no longer play the instrument he loves.

Along comes Daniel (Tāmata Porter) who is full of expression and beautiful to watch dressed in a skirt. Daniel persuades Adam to get off the bridge and to meet their mother, Irina, the piano teacher who taught him as a young pupil and led him to be a genius. Irina, played brilliantly by actor and voice coach Perry Piercy, is a Ukrainian refugee who lies in a bed in the living room and is – the doctors declare – in her last year of life with cancer.

Daniel cares for her, administering a mix of natural and illegal medical treatments bought on the black market. The action happens on the colourful set designed by Ian Harman featuring a retro living room and a bed where Irina sits throughout, and a mock set of stairs leading to a bridge off to one side where the “classifieds’’ often go to jump.

In the next scene, Irina’s daughter Yulia (Mel Dodge) returns to her mother’s bedside, back from helping patients in the Ukrainian war. Dodge – the solo actress in Prima Facie – gives her usual jaw-dropping, dramatic performance as a consultant who now works in a children’s ward and has to administer precious and restricted cancer treatment.

She spouts the government line: if her mother is classified, she shouldn’t get the restricted medicines. Whose life is more important and worth saving or prolonging? Dodge and Piercy are brilliant as they have a back-and-forth argument, showing opposing views.

“Do you accept this rule that I must have no more treatment?’’ her mother asks.

“I do. Yes, I do. And you need to accept it,’’ Yulia retorts.

There is one flaw in the play which could be edited if Hope returns for another season. The first suicide threat by Adam feels real; so does the idea that “classifieds’’ might also choose to jump in a moment of helplessness, to precipitate their impending death, giving the law the foreboding impact the playwright is looking for.

But in a final scene, a suicide threat feels overplayed and insensitive. The idea that chirpy, caring Daniel might consider throwing himself off a bridge because of an error he made doesn’t ring true.

It would have been more believable if he was shown dealing with his grief, rather than threatening to end his life. The handling of suicide is too light for such a devastating possibility.

A piano is also centre-piece, and beautiful music composed by Briar Prastiti is played by Adam, Daniel and Yulia throughout Hope. There’s also plenty of humour to lighten the heavy story, and Hope ends with hope.

Pattrick (author of The Denniston Rose) wrote her play in 2019 before the pandemic, the Ukraine war and the health cuts. Hope also made me think about the complexities around our euthanasia laws, and the tug between opposing groups: do they go too far or not far enough? The talented storyteller in her senior years has the wisdom and insight to reveal that a blanket solution for the terminally ill doesn’t work.

Hope is on at Circa One until Sunday, Feb 23