Long Time Dead

Published Thursday 2 November 2006 at 12:30 by Roger Malone

A searing slot of light opens onto a wide-screen snowscape where three climbers - one injured - struggle to secure their ropes.

At first the relentless banter of climbing buddies Grizzly (Garry Cooper) and Dog (Jon Foster) seems excessive until you realise it is to keep Gnome (Lesley Hart) conscious prior to a precarious emergency descent.

Rona Munro’s play delves into relationships and the ties with the dead in what literally becomes a dramatic cliff-hanger in the second half.

The ice-sheet white-out of Miriam Buether’s simplistic but dynamic set doubles as a sanitised hospital room where the two male climbers stand vigil over an unconscious Gnome, suspended surreally in her bed.

Here are three ordinary lives focused in pursuit of the rare adrenaline rush of their high-altitude obsession. Not looking for death, they nevertheless push life to the limit. Dog reveres Grizzly and Gnome dotes on him like a father. For Grizzly, the mountain holds the ghost of his dead brother - a spectre that Dog thinks he sees.

Back in the hospital Grizzly has to confront someone else’s ghost. His affection for Gnome’s nurse (Jan Pearson) is blighted by her ties to her dead husband.

A recovered Gnome, Dog and Grizzly return to the mountain to reach the peak. Here Chahine Yavroyan’s lighting paints subtle hues on the snow. Especially evocative was the rose-pink glow of the sinking sun savoured by the trio before the violet-blue chill of advancing night.

When tragedy strikes, the play cranks up a nail-biting gear to the denouement. Although it could benefit from being shorter, this is a heart-warming story unfurling against an unforgiving frozen wilderness.