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Culture Theatre

Fringe review: Living Will

LIVING WILL by Helen-Claire Tingling (the Living Will Company). Factory Mainspace. July 11 at 3:30 pm, July 12 at 8:45 pm, July 14 at 11 pm, July 15 at 7 pm. See listing. Rating: NN

Helen-Claire Tinglings would-be expose of Ontarios health-care professionals arrogance is biased and confused in its arguments and tedious as drama.

The 79-year-old patriarch Wilfred King (Bill MacDonald) has made a standard living will asking for no heroic measures to resuscitate him should he be incapacitated. When Wilfred comes down with shingles and then injures himself in a fall, he has to be hospitalized.

After Wilfred refuses rehydration, Wilfreds doctor (Jill Niedoba) calls a family meeting. She and Wilfreds younger son Galen (Abraham Asto) agree that rehydration will allow Wilfred to make clearer decisions. Galens three siblings are outraged at any intervention. Through unknown means (illegal in Ontario) Tingling has the doctor override the power of attorney of the older son Jake (Peter Nelson).

Shingles is not a fatal illness, yet we keep hearing that Wilfred is dying. Without telling us what he’s dying of, Tingling expects us to take Jakes side against the doctor. Worse, Tingling demonizes Wilfreds doctor by having her state, All geriatric cases are mental cases as if that were not an extraordinarily aberrant viewpoint.

The script desperately needs an editor to remove all the repetition and everyday minutiae that weigh it down. The actors give passionate performances but dont project enough to be heard clearly over the Factory Theatres air-conditioning.

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