Words: Berlyn Lee

5 Stars

Chris Grace serves a deeply emotional and funny performance about life and death.

The show opens with Chris centre stage in all white – as if to juxtapose the dark subject matter. He asks the audience to imagine a screen, he first says he didn’t provide one because they’re expensive to rent before joking he did this intentionally to encourage the audience to use their imagination. Later, it begins to feel like he didn’t provide a screen with pictures from his life because he wants you, the audience, to fill the story with your own characters and personal experiences.

Chris mimes taking a picture of the audience on a fake phone and sharing it on the invisible projector. He then pulls up a picture of his family, everyone except for his dad, standing in front of his sister’s home. He zooms in on a part of the group; his mom, brother, sister, and partner. Then tells the audience that all four of the members he’s just named are dead.

He poses the question, “Can you enjoy the story if you already know the ending?” A clever way
of asking, “Can we enjoy life if we know we’re going to die?”

Sardines (A Comedy About Death) is an immersive journey through the grief of losing everything, and finding a way to continue on. By the end, even the person filming the performance was in tears.

A beautiful piece of artwork that everyone deserves to see.

Chris Grace: Sardines (A Comedy About Death)
Assembly George Square Studios – Studio Five
13:40
Aug 22-26