Theatre-makers often overcomplicate things. At the Fringe, Kevin!!! cluttered the stage with tech yet lacked human connection; Flight turned a shipping container into a commercial plane but ultimately was gimmicky; Puttana experimented with binaural audio, at the expense of any kind of ideological clarity. In Goodbye Dandelion, however, there are simply two microphones and a piano, and it is the most emotionally affecting work I have seen at Edinburgh this year.
Goodbye Dandelion is a show about death, and life, as performer Maddie correctly informs us, as sibling writer-performer duo Marcus and Maddie Rice recount Maddie’s friendship with an 87-year-old woman named Darcy. The show follows the final years of Darcy through the eyes of her new friend, using this story to ask wider questions about mortality and how we choose to live.
It is an immediately cosy, charming piece of theatre. As Marcus plays soothing chords on his piano, and Maddie recounts meeting Darcy’s old tabby cat, the tone is the theatrical equivalent of a hot chocolate. How quaint. This is largely due to Maddie’s unbelievable gift as a storyteller, describing Darcy with an excited glimmer in her eye, as if telling this story for the first time, not at the end of a long and tiring Fringe run. The joy is palpable and infectious.
Yet when Darcy informs Maddie she wants to die, the atmosphere masterfully shifts, once again aided musically. Marcus’ Bo Burnham-esque musical interludes comment on the inevitability of death. Whilst providing many chuckles, especially with a recurring bit about Gordon Brown, the tunes also reflect the grip that death holds on society, with mentions of Dolly Parton particularly tugging at the heartstrings. Music does not so much accompany this show, but is instead a central part of its theatrical language. A recurring melody sung by the entire audience clearly demonstrates music’s ritualistic power, pertinent given Darcy works as a piano teacher.
This is so much more than a play, it is a communal experience that culminates in the realisation that life is too short to wear the different masks society demands of us. When Maddie and Marcus open up about their own personal experiences with illness and mortality, any perception of characters on stage is broken. It takes something special for such soul-stirring transformative realisations to occur from such a small, simple show.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
