’The simple fact is that we took our decision long ago. We rehearsed the arguments. We weighed them up. We came to our conclusion. After that, we visited the notary and together drew up our living wills. It seems to me there’s really very little more to be said.’ Anna Luft
If As We Were Walking is set in an unnamed European city in a period that is neither past nor present. In this time and this place, under strict regulation, an ‘approved termination’ is now available to those suffering from terminal physical or mental conditions.
The play’s central character, Max, is a complex and, to a degree, deluded individual blessed — or cursed — with an exceptional memory. Max has received an early diagnosis of dementia the symptoms of which he is doing his best to disguise from himself and from others.
The key dilemma is that, in order to adhere to the official regulations, a sufferer’s mental faculties must be ‘sufficiently unimpaired’ to allow him/her to make ‘a rational decision’. How long can the sufferer defer the decision to apply for an approved termination? The danger is that, by clinging to life, the sufferer may leave it too late to apply for an approved termination and the opportunity will be gone.
The other characters are: Anna, Max’s wife, a complex character herself who, while seeing things very clearly, seems to have conspired in her own confinement; Dr Fischer, the local doctor, who becomes close — too close? — to the family; and Dr Brandt, a younger specialist from the hospital, whose chief concern is that the provisions of the legislation should be adhered to correctly.
Cast: 1F, 3M
Running time: approximately 100 minutes (nine scenes)
Critical response:
“It’s a great script – poignant, poetic and beautifully written ...”
“The play’s subject matter is important and socially relevant and you explore it with real integrity.“
“The structure is thoughtful and allows us to notice the subtle moments of decline in Max’s memory, which are all the more poignant as you vividly capture Max as an intelligent, eccentric character.”
Performed at Actors & Writers London, Hammersmith, December 2013
Performed at the CAA, Covent Garden, October 2014
For a preview script and licensing enquiries, please contact Hayes Stage Plays