Goodbye Mr Coffee. Courtyard Theatre.

After a long career in children’s publishing, writer and performer Brian Voakes approaches retirement with a determination to find something else to occupy his time. A friend poses the question ‘where in life were you happiest?’ to which the answer is way back at high school drama class. With what one senses to be some trepidation Voakes determines on becoming an actor.

Fate gets in the way. In the summer break after his first year of drama school sexagenarian Voakes experiences chest pain, night sweats, and exhaustion. Urgent admission to hospital provides the autobiographical foundation for his debut play Goodbye Mr Coffee, a witty, kind, and gently observed monologue on coming to terms with death.

Voakes’ character Robert is a gregarious type who has spent 30 years cycling around London on a Brompton bike. Illness and death is mostly something that happens to others. “Do you really want me to read this?” he asks with a whiff of dismay when asked to recite a poem at a friend’s funeral. Unready and unwilling to contemplate his own demise his admission with pneumonia to what he calls “the ward for bewildered old men” forces some unwanted questions. Chief amongst them, “do I give in or soldier on?”.

Robert finds comfort and meaning in random encounters with strangers in neighbouring beds. Harvey, a survivor of oesophageal cancer, a stoke, and a dozen other misfortunes offers sage advice: “just focus on your next breath”.  The two men share an unlikely connection with actor Mark Rylance, one which spurs a bond and offers a narrative structure to a piece that is mostly wry observation and lingering reflection. Director Iacopo Farusi places a semi-circle of audience members on stage directly in front of Voakes, a cohort of random strangers forced into unexpected intimacy: just like being in hospital really. Compassionate and thought-provoking stuff.

Writer: Brian Voakes

Director:  Iacopo Farusi