EDINBURGH 2023: Review: DEATH SUITS YOU, Bedlam Theatre

Sam Hooper’s Death Suits You is a wickedly sharp take on humanity’s most prominent cosmic character: Death. Seen earlier this year at the VAULT Fesitival, the portrayal of Death as an intense and slightly neurotic white-collar worker is a fresh take on a role typically cast as a haunting spectre. Showing off his favourite case files to the audience in a frustrated attempt at some appreciation for the dead-ication he puts into his work, Death Suits You is a hilarious and dark piece of musical theatre.

Hooper’s impressive display of talent – writing, acting, singing, dancing – packaged neatly into one hour-long show really brings the character to life (sorry) and shows the diversity of his own skill set. The mix of song, spoken word, and dance to represent each of the subjects on display keeps the show's progression entertaining, avoiding the sense of repetitiveness that could have so easily occurred with a formulaic approach to numerous case study dissections. His performance is consistently fantastic, a striking vocal range evidenced in each song, and his transition between Death’s favourite subjects and the character himself are flawless as he folds seamlessly back into his main role.

It would have been interesting to mix the format up a little further or explore a handful of cases more comprehensively than shift between one file to the next all the way through; this might have limited the sense of multiple narratives being stacked atop one another opposed to flowing together.

The involvement of the audience allows an additional level of dark humour to persist throughout the show and brings many ‘laugh out loud’ moments, rather than just a general sense of dry amusement. It even manages to work in some subtle social commentary (and some less so subtle, by design) and holds a mirror to humanity’s fight against the one thing inevitable in life: its end. He argues that he is the one thing that gives our life meaning and it’s strangely motivating to be reminded of our unavoidable expiry. The real tragedy is not death but rather the waste of a life – use it or lose it.

Death Suits You is an entertaining scrutiny of humanity’s psychological avoidance yet behavioural sprint towards our end with strong theatrical and comedic elements at work. A must-see for musical theatre fans with a penchant for dark humour.

Death Suits You runs at Bedlam Theatre Aug 10-13, 15-27.

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