Anatomy of a Suicide

Playwright: Alice Birch Director: Katie Mitchell Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, Royal Court, Sloane Square, London SW1 (020-7565 5000) Until 8 July Running time: 2hrs (no interval)

The British writer Alice Birch is only 30 years of age, yet already she is a force to be reckoned with, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. She first drew attention to her “groundbreaking” gift with her 2014 play Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again, a “cluster of scenelets that formed a potent feminist rallying cry”. This year she has confirmed that promise with her screenplay for the much-praised film Lady Macbeth, in which Birch transposed Nikolai Leskov’s 1865 bodice-ripping novella from Russia to Victorian England. Now, in Anatomy of a Suicide – “an audacious but wintry examination of the impact of suicide across three generations of women” – she “pushes the envelope” once more, not least through the inventive use of form. The piece is a triptych in which the three related stories play out concurrently on the same stage. The way “conversations overlap, intersect, even chime exactly, as if words are echoing down the decades, is a compositional marvel”.

In this “haunting” piece of theatre, handled with “transfixing skill” by Katie Mitchell, we witness mother (Carol – in the 1970s), daughter (Anna – 1990s), and granddaughter (Bonnie – 2030s), each battling with depression, said Sarah Hemming in the FT. Carol’s suicide, it seems, has left an indelible imprint on the lives of her daughter and granddaughter. Can suicide in some sense be “inherited”, the play seems to be asking. Birch and Mitchell don’t answer directly; instead they “evoke the feeling of living with that shadow”, building a piece of theatre that “works like music, its motifs, patterns and repetitions creating an overwhelming emotional effect”.

All three leading actors give performances of “extraordinary intensity” and precision, said Paul Taylor in The Independent. Hattie Morahan “mesmerises as Carol, aloof in the misery of the guardedly desperate housewife”. Adelle Leonce’s “fervent but contained” Bonnie is also “beautifully judged”, said Susannah Clapp in The Observer. And Kate O’flynn as Anna is “remarkable: a bolt of unhappiness”. Anatomy of a Suicide is a rare thing: a play that is static, almost trance-like, yet “riveting”.

The week’s other opening

Tristan & Yseult Shakespeare’s Globe, London SE1, until 24 June, then touring (01872-267910) When Emma Rice was asked to take over at the Globe, it was no doubt her brilliant shows for Kneehigh, such as this, that the board had in mind – and this “seductive” revival works superbly well in the space (Sunday Times).