Theatre Review: Requiem Stained With Grass

Requiem Stained With Grass is a breath-taking play that explores how everyone deals with death differently and how we ‘cope’ and interact in the period of grief. The play was written by James Morris, a Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences student, whose stunning writing is both emotionally dark and shockingly witty. Performed by the Infinity Stage Company, they are the only theatre society at UoB to donate all of their proceeds to a chosen charity; all profits for this show are going to Birch Community Network, which is a small, volunteer led charity working across Birmingham to support vulnerable refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants.

Requiem Stained With Grass follows three characters – Rachel, played by Cerys Wernham, Tony, played by Jack Talbot, and Martin, played by Alfie Webb. The three friends are at the funeral of their friend Chris – we are situated in an open grass space with two benches where they interact before and after the funeral. We never see the funeral, but we get to see how their emotions shift on this difficult day, and how they interact through joking comments, hurtful arguments and confessions.

Silence is used effectively to show the tension of the characters who struggle to communicate with how they really feel

When Tony and Rachel come onto stage, the lighting is black out until they are sat upon the benches. Here, silence is used effectively to show the tension of the characters who struggle to communicate with how they really feel about everything. Having the play situated in a single location allows Morris’ writing to be at the forefront here with us focused on the characters and how they interact, rather than the setting. But the setting still enables us to focus on the outside of the funeral and with comments about avoiding grass stains on their clothes, having grass on the entire stage creates an inevitability of this happening.

All of the characters had a different relationship with Chris which causes some conflict between them about who knew Chris the most and deserves to grieve. They all study English Literature at the same university; Rachel was Chris’ best friend; they had grown up together and it was clear from the way that Rachel spoke about him that they were like brother and sister. Rachel is struggling to deal with her sadness and thus, becomes angry and defensive towards Tony and in particular, Martin, who had known Chris for the least amount of time. Yet, at certain points, and certainly at the end, Rachel was able to laugh and remember Chris without just tears.

Tony, while an intriguingly witty character, was sometimes borderline annoying with the way he treated Rachel. However, through his ability to open up at the end, we could see that it was because he felt left out from Chris’ family who didn’t know about his relationship with Chris. The character of Tony embodied a conformity to the gay stereotype with his femininity, sassiness and abrupt nature, but he accepts this and also shows this isn’t the only aspect to him.

Martin was mistreated to begin with by Rachel who felt him undeserving of being at the funeral, but as they all opened up, we learn, as a key message to this play, that everyone is deserving of grief no matter your relation to the person.

Direct dialogue between the characters allows us to learn about each individual character as well as their relationships to each other, Chris and grief.

Dealing with grief isn’t a straightforward process

Rachel’s speech to Chris and Martin’s speech to God allows us to see these characters by themselves and the monologues are essential in capturing their pain and anger at the universe and their strong feelings of loss and bereavement.

Overall, Requiem Stained With Grass is a beautifully written play that provides essential messages of how dealing with grief isn’t a straightforward process and the plot allows for dramatic tension and character change to grow to create suspense and a gripping movement. The boldness and quietness of each character is written exquisitely to portray shifts of emotions. This is a play that is much needed and I am excited to see more work from Morris and Infinity Stage Company in the future.