Review: Lifeline

Lifeline – Toronto Fringe Festival – Fringe Listing under “L”

Lifeline is an enormous play about the echo of life from death hidden in a deceptively lightweight package. With a charming cast and a number of very good laughs, several stories take place in a hospital under the common theme of alienation and sadness borne from loss, but also of how loss can lead to redemption.

The play opens with the suicide of a main character, but make no mistake: Everybody in Lifeline starts out alone. Departures, betrayals and fatal mistakes are given just the right amount of weight without going overboard, and beautiful conceits are given towards how attempts at fixing yourself with your past still on your shoulders can cause collisions that only end up hurting everyone.

But not, thankfully, in every case – one thing that Lifeline does well with its multiple stories is show all of the outcomes possible in reaching out to others, and all of the characters in the play both learn and grow from their experiences. While some might say that the play fails to deliver on its emotional climax, I believe it does precisely what it ought to. “There are things you can’t beg for,” says one of the characters, and I believe this speaks to each of the storylines – as in life, some conclusions and relationships are brutal, and if they have any meaning at all, it is that only they were meant to end.

Ultimately, I think Lifeline is about the fact that you can become a greater and better person by caring about people whether they care about you back, or if who you care for is an actual somebody or just the memory of them. The character that kills himself has, as one of his final thoughts, that people did not know him well; in the show that follows, I believe we are left to contemplate how many of the other characters share a dark proximity to that sentiment, and that they will avoid it is what we are meant to hope for.

I realize that this entire review doesn’t say very much about the show specifically, and may just seem like a bunch of weird, broad statements about so-on and so-forth. If you do go see it, though, I hope you’ll keep these thoughts in mind. I think they’ll make sense to you then.

The Good: Pretty much everything is good about this show, but I found that the end of the closet scene was what made it go from good to great. I really felt that there was an easy way out of it for a playwright and a hard one, and that the more challenging tack was taken. I love it when this happens. That was when Lifeline really dove into ‘holy shit…!’ territory for me.

The Bad: Though performed well, some things go a little long – the flirtations between paramedic and nurse, and parts of certain monologues.

The Final Verdict: This is a very, very good show that should absolutely not be missed. It’s really exciting to see a company this young – and their youth does show, despite solid performances – deliver such an extraordinary and heartfelt production. Go.