Sea Wall / A Life
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Average rating4
Meet Alex, a photographer on a holiday with his family in the south of France. Meet Abe, a music producer with a baby on the way. Two men—both fathers, husbands, and sons—take us on a journey you will never forget. The finest actors of their generation, Academy Award® nominee Jake Gyllenhaal (Sunday in the Park with George) and Tony Award nominee Tom Sturridge (1984), had audiences roaring to their feet during the sold-out Broadway engagement.
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If anyone wants this I'll buy it for you. It's an hour and a half and zones in on birth / death / purpose with and without people we love.
I'd seen the YouTube version of Sea Wall with Andrew Scott, and hearing another actor paint different pictures with the same language is always an incredible experience - but I'd never heard A Life before, and that blew me away. It actually made Sea Wall feel a little shallow in comparison (but maybe that's just because I was thinking ahead so I wouldn't have to feel the tragedy I was hearing in the moment).
A Life centred around one story of Death, and another of Birth, told simultaneously. A few things that stood out - (paraphrased)
‘we prepare so well for birth but horrendously for death, you only get to die once, may as well do it right' - damn.
&
‘Imagining life without you seems pretty [insert word for something impossible]'; which left me considering the nature of relationships, and whether or not we choose a life partner out of fear or out of love (or, some combination of both, probably, I don't know?? I'm 23!)
I feel really inspired by the monologue format at the moment, and how what for me seem like complex philosophical issues can be tackled in such human, emotive ways. Beautiful. Thanks Tom Sturridge, Jake G, Simon Stephens & Nick Payne for your artistry.
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