Queensland-based author Cory Taylor published her memoir about the dying process as she was living it in 2016 – the same year American neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi published his memoir about the dying process as he was living it, When Breath Becomes Air. Both books are invaluable from a clinical standpoint but they also seem strangely detached, emotionally and psychologically muted. The creeping horror of death is largely absent. Neither book seems remotely suited to the theatre.
It’s a curious choice for Benjamin Law to adapt into a play and curious again for Melbourne Theatre Company to stage it. According to the program, Law was a personal friend of Taylor’s and felt compelled to translate it into theatre “with a sense of responsibility to my late friend’s legacy”. It’s a germane word, as Taylor’s book – and to a lesser extent the play that emerges from it – largely constitutes her legacy, at least publicly. It may have been foremost in her mind as she wrote.
