Impending Storm Productions returns with a new work from playwright Kieran Gould-Dowen and director Alistair Ward.
The Consequence of Kindness will be presented from November 2-5 at 7.30pm, with a 1:30pm matinee on Saturday, November 5 at the MC Showroom in Prahran.
Promoted as ‘a gut-punching, emotional and powerful story on connection, compassion, mental health and suicide, that somehow finds the time to make you laugh along the way’, the story takes audiences to a world where suicide has been made illegal once again.
Except, in a pursuit of creating positive change, they also ensured everyone must have five emergency contacts who agree to take responsibility for them and face prison time if they decide to take their life.
Moderated by The Neighbourhood Watch, a government department who monitors everyone’s well being closely and flags anything of concern to authorities, it’s a law change that after twenty years, people have forgotten why it was ever created.
On the day of Heath’s birthday, his friends and family gather for a surprise birthday party, only to find the real surprise is Heath has taken his life.
What unfolds is a desperate journey of discovery, self-reflection, heartache, grief, necessary laughter, and amusing mishaps as the group come up with a crazy plan to give Heath the send off he deserves and somehow escape anybody ever knowing. But is it worth it? And how much did they really know their dear friend and brother in the first place?
Kieran started writing The Consequence Of Kindness at the start of 2020 after another celebrity suicide hit the media and he reflected on his own complex history and ongoing journey with mental health and suicide.
suicide or mental health, but instead about connection, community and compassion, and just how much we need each other to survive in a world that can be so hard.
“If you have ever found yourself sitting in complete darkness in some random corner of your home or some street nearby, sobbing and feeling like everything is just too hard, then this is my love letter to you,” says writer Gould-Dowen.
“You’re not alone and I see you. And if you’ve ever sat with someone in the dark in silence and taken their hand, without judgement, just love in your heart, then from both me and them, thank you.”
Dates: November 2 -5
Times: 7pm, 1.30pm matinee on Saturday
Cost: $35-38
Venue: The MC Showroom, Level 1, 48 Clifton Street, Prahran
Tickets: https://www.themc
showroom.com