Sometimes you watch a play and get stuck. It resonates, informs and entertains so profoundly that it’s hard to articulate how the complex interweaving of characters, set, lighting, sound, stage energy, timing and all the other elements of theatre have come together to pull you into a maelstrom of emotions and thoughts.

Most of us have been touched by suicide. It has almost become an epidemic, particularly amongst Indigenous people and men aged between 15 and 44. I used to consider it a selfish act, intended to hurt those left behind so they felt the same pain. Now I know different. As articulated by Norm towards the end of Andrew Hinderaker’s black comedy SUICIDE, INCORPORATED.

“It hurts to breathe. I’m tired of feeling that.”

This is a reprisal of Knock and Run’s production of this play as they originally staged it in 2016, with returning director Patrick Campbell, who received a CONDA Award for Best Director of a Drama or Comedy for the production in that year, assisted by  Zoe Anderson.

Sensitive issues like suicide tend to squash people into hushed PC responses full of reverence, tears, sympathy, quiet hand holding and hugs.

This play blasts apart all that with that explosive device comedy employed in the blackest of traditions. It’s marvellous.

Former Hallmark Cards employee Jason seeks a job at Legacy Letters, a company cashing in on the increasing suicide rate, by offering a specific service (including Spring Special Discounts) in writing and editing of suicide notes.

Scott, the sarcastic, plain talking hard-nosed CEO and founder of the company only cares about expansion with no thought for the plight of his customers nor for the impact of his blunt, dismissive and aggressive manner on his faithful side-kick, Perry.

Jason returns home every night to his heavy drinking younger brother Tommy and we soon realise that this is a far more complex situation than initially thought and that Jason has demons of his own.

You see, Jason is also a responder on a telephone crises helpline.

When a new client Norm comes to Legacy Letters looking for help with composing his suicide note after the rapid breakdown of his brand-new marriage, Jason commences a duplicity, artfully dodging the watchful and suspicious eye of Scott, while seemingly assisting Norm with composing his final words for his suicide note.

The debut cast has been reassembled with the exception of Ned Keogh as Tommy. Having seen the original Knock and Run production in 2016, following the plot was replaced by observing and appreciating the genuine skill and talent with which each member of the cast realised their character and engaged the audience in a roller coaster of emotional highs and lows.

Comedy is hard and black comedy is even harder and this cast consistently nailed the exquisite timing and emphasis needed to haul the audience into their surreal world and then punch them in the chest with the genuine pathos and pain of loss, depression and suicide.

Phillip Ross delivers a ruthless and highly adaptable Scott with razor sharp delivery and angular physicality to the point of caricature, contrasting with the more sensitive, aware and complex Jason as portrayed by James Chapman and the gormless, wishing to please Perry (Cooper McDonald).

Poor Perry. He is no match for the take no prisoners approach of Scott and some of the finest comedy moments are McDonald’s high waisted trousered and green vested Perry trying desperately to please as he sees his position in the company diminished in favour of the rising star, Jason. He should never have ordered pink pens.

The new cast member, Ned Keogh as Tommy brings a grungy, laconic earthiness to his role. The scenes with his brother, Jason become heartbreaking and haunting:  what did happen to Tommy in the dorm at college?

Then there’s Norm (Carl Gregory) who feels so small. Who through his own inability to articulate his true thoughts and motivations has spiralled rapidly into a situation from which he sees only one way out. Carl Gregory is one versatile and talented actor who holds his character’s narrative on a fine high-wire of emotion with no safety net. It’s wonderful to watch, particularly the moving, hilarious, pathetic and sad monologue about his brief marriage and the reasons behind the demise of his relationship with his wife.

The set is functional and effective; office stage left and Jason’s flat stage right and general space in between all delineated and supported by the atmospheric lighting design by Lyndon Buckley. Don’t be fooled, the tight simplicity of the set simply highlights the complexity of the tragicomedy that is enacted upon it.

As one audience member Richard Murray reflected;

“SUICIDE, INCORPORATED is powerful exploration of the despair that drives people to take their own lives and the traumatic impact of the loved ones of those who do. Darkly funny and deeply moving…”

While the all too brief 3-day season of Knock and Run’s SUICIDE, INCORPORATED at Newcastle Theatre Company

is over, the company does hope to take the production to regional New South Wales. Given the troubling rise of suicide in rural areas, hopefully the combination of a male cast with knockabout comedy and genuine understanding and pathos will help to prise open some dialogue and encourage the seeking of support.