Sh*t Life Crisis - Northern Arts Review
at York Theatre Royal
Sh*t Life Crisis - Northern Arts Review
Blaze of Glory by Bon Jovi. It’s my go-to karaoke song. I don’t care where I am, or how sober I am, but if I hear that banger come on, I am absolutely going to pull out my air guitar and perform a solo. It’s amazing how music has that power over us—to just stop whatever we are doing, forget what was bothering us, and throw ourselves into the catchy chorus (or in my case, the twangy riff of an electric guitar) and lose ourselves in the moment. It can take long train journeys and late-night road trips from dull to memory-making, and a high-quality sad song can hold our hand through a heartbreak. And it is often the music we make together: singing Christmas carols with friends or drunkenly shouting the lyrics to Purple Rain with your best mates as you stumble your way home from the pub that brings people together. In Olivia Hannah’s intimate and joy-filled two-hander, Sh*t Life Crisis, she explores the visceral, emotive—and sometimes life-changing—connections we make when we sing together.
Hannah’s play has had a long road to reach the Godber Studio. She first developed it through Silent Uproar’s own writer support programme back in 2021, and the script itself was longlisted for the Paines Plough Women’s Prize for Playwriting the year prior. Directed by Silent Uproar’s Artistic Director Alex Mitchell and produced by the Hull-based company behind previous cult favourites like Dead Girls Rising and The Night of the Werewolves, the show returns to Hull with backing from the city’s own CHCP Foundation, following its successful UK tour.
We open at a memorial, held by Grace for her old schoolfriend Abbie. From there, the play slips backwards through a series of flashbacks: Abbie, freshly through her own fight with breast cancer, turning up for Grace just as she’s diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma. As we watch the two women go from chemo to karaoke, we’re invited into their friendship from the inside, belting along to some bangin’ tracks on the way.
To see my full review, please visit Northern Arts Review
See you in the shadows my loves,
Sean x
