A very pregnant woman is helping her family cope with mother’s impending death from Stage 4 cancer. Dad teaches Tai Chi. Mom is a painter. Her Aunt is an actress who has just arrived to offer support to her dying sister. Jane is a Buddhist and wants a burial cremation involving a bonfire not hospice care. The doorbell rings. The simple pine box coffin has arrived. Aunt Lydia is named Death Coordinator. There is going to be Dying in Boulder.
The attractive set design by Yu-Hsuan Chen is dominated by a large Japanese-style rock garden. The tranquility of the space suggests a place for meditation and calm. Aunt Lydia is troubled by the family’s preparation for her sister Jane’s death only to hear “what she needs now is comfort, not hope.” Linda Faigao-Hall’s play examines our fear of death using comedy to hold a mirror to western practices and beliefs.
Jane’s death bed wishes include a karmic cleansing. She’d rather not take her issues into the afterlife. Slow deaths are a blessing as there’s “time for atonement.” She wants to have private heart-to-heart chats with everyone. One family member never returned after their “talk.” Dying in Boulder begins as a dark comedy which explores our reactions to end of life care.
Max arrives to offer support for her journey to the next phase of existence. Jane attended his workshop “The Buddhist Way to Die, Part I.” For every lighthearted joke, there are also deeper musings which emerge. There is “no shame in growing old; it’s part of being human.” The first act swings unevenly between humor and wisdom. Flashbacks (often laced with jokes) are used to fill in backstories; some are silly, others are appalling which at least gives the play a jolt of adrenaline.
The second act veers uncomfortably from light and slightly edgy comedy to a much darker place. Jane may be a dying Buddhist but she has some death bed cruelty to administer. Sordid family secrets and baggage have to be aired out before the karmic cleansing will be complete. The soap opera unfolds and comedy takes a back seat to a laundry list of familial slights and life regrets. Although the death bed one-on-one conversations were foretold in the first act, nothing suggested the extent of the dramatic overload which came later.
As daughter Nikki, Mallory Ann Wu successfully navigated her character’s conflicts and emotions. Resigned to her mother’s impending death, she becomes the moral center of the play. Can the next generation learn from the mistakes of previous ones? Is forgiveness possible or even necessary? After questioning her own upbringing and now about to have a baby, can she make family her passion (rather than career)?
Ms. Faigao-Hall has written a play filled with the thoughts and absurdities of a life imperfectly lived. The imperfection is in the eye of the beholder. The regret may be in the mind of the dying. The uneasy mix of sitcom laughs and stinging family dysfunction ultimately hinders the play’s focus. The consideration of one’s own Dying in Boulder is an interesting notion worthy of exploration. I hope mine is funnier with histrionics kept to a minimum.