How did the show come about?

Til Death Do We Part was made by a group of eight young women on BA (Hons) Contemporary Theatre and Performance at Wimbledon College of Arts, and was performed to the public in June 2022.

The play was written by Carmen Rivas Perez (Jude Is Not Depressed, The Camden Fringe 2024), who worked in collaboration with her peers to storyboard, devise and workshop the script. Carmen approached Lara to be a director on the project and presented her with drafts for the opening and closing scenes. The closing scene described God appearing to the protagonist as a flower that grows from the stage. This prompted Lara to approach a student on the course, Chin-tung ‘Amanda’ Wu, who is trained in Chinese sleeve dancing (see above) to perform in the show as ‘the flower’. From here, the company grew to become a group of eight, with company members coming from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Poland, Lithuania, South Africa and the UK. The cultural diversity within the company allowed them to tackle the themes of death, grief and the afterlife from a global perspective.

Key references and inspiration

The company drew inspiration from the mediaeval morality play Everyman for the play’s narrative arc, creating a story that sees Bea going on a physical and an emotional journey. For production design and staging, they looked at the post-dramatic set design and use of the ensemble in The Ocean at the End of the Lane (National Theatre, 2019). They chose to portray Death as a horse, taking inspiration from the biblical description of the four horsemen of the apocalypse in the book of Revelations, designed by co-director Jodie-Leigh Armstrong. God was portrayed as an ethereal version of Bea ’s best friend, Claire, which evoked an emotional response from the audience as the actor was last seen onstage just before Claire ’s death at the beginning of the play. The score was composed by Dovile Bernataviciute, inspired by the techno and ambient sounds of British musician, Aphex Twin. The company created the play over four months, using Carmen ’s opening and closing scenes as guidance to get from A to Bea.