How To Be Brave: Compelling

Writer Louise Beech’s debut novel was How To Be Brave, published in 2015, a heartfelt tribute to her grandfather Colin Armitage, telling his sea survival story during WW2, while at the same time weaving in another storyline where Natalie and her nine-year-old daughter Rose struggle to come to terms with a Type 1 diabetes diagnosis that changed both their lives forever. 

The book was a Guardian Readers’ Pick, and luckily for all of us, after Louise met up with freelance director Kate Veysey and Neil King and Richard Avery (founders of Other Lives Productions in 2006), she turned this book into the poignant and powerful play we were all privileged to experience at Theatre@41 on Sunday, 3rd November. 

“We trade blood for words,” said Louise at the beginning of the play, through mother Natalie’s character (portrayed brilliantly by Alice Palmer). "This is our currency; her pain for my prose.” And so the story of bravery and determination to survive began. 

The scenes alternated between the liferaft that Colin scrambled aboard after his ship was torpedoed in the South Atlantic in 1943 and Natalie and daughter Rose’s house in Hull. The story inspiring Rose to be brave in the face of her diabetes is a true one. When Louise's daughter Katy received a Type 1 diabetes diagnosis 64 years after her grandfather Colin's ordeal, she used the story of Colin's bravery and determination to survive as a distraction for Katy during her insulin injections. Livy Potter was perfectly cast as nine-year-old Rose, capturing her fear, frustration, resentment, and anger with her diagnosis, taking it out on the one she loved most, her mother. The relationship created between mother and daughter really resonated, particularly the guilty feeling that haunted Natalie, even though she had nothing to blame herself for; this was raw, real life and made for powerful viewing, with the loving bond they had helping both of them sail through the choppy sea of emotions experienced. Alison Shaw made the part of nurse Shelley her own, flagging up what a vital role an empathetic nurse plays in the lives of patients coming to terms with being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. 

The intimate space at Theatre @41 was ideal for Emily Clay’s carefully considered set design with atmospheric lighting (Leo McCall) working in perfect harmony with the script, creating a surreal yet totally believable time slip. Such was the quality of acting from this stellar cast. Credit too should be given to musician Carrie Martin for her haunting song, How To Be Brave, featured in the second half of the play.

HMS Rapid finally rescued Colin, along with the ship's carpenter Ken "Chippie" Cooke, whom Colin had hauled from the water when the ship sank, 50 days after he scrambled aboard that liferaft. They were the only two survivors.

Louise is a master storyteller and cleverly drew parallels between Colin and Ken’s desperate situation and Rose’s, with the other men’s stories who had also reached the safety of the boat being told through mime and compelling narration; most effective drama devices. We suffered with all the crewmen as slowly but surely the days went by, always with the danger of life ebbing away—you could almost smell the fuel spillage that blackened Colin and Ken’s faces. So compelling was the drama unfolding before us, juxtaposed with Rose’s own battle to be brave. 

Jacob Ward was outstanding in his role of Colin Armitage, as was Lex Stephenson playing Ken Cooke; at times it was almost unbearable to watch their scenes at sea, all credit to how compelling and convincing they were as performers. You felt their fear too when “Scarface“ and other sharks became a real threat. We felt the tedium of their ordeal, yet the play was never tedious—far from it, just like Rose, we wanted to know the next chapter. 

Louise never met her grandfather; he passed before she existed. However, she said that she fully believes that “memories are part of our make-up, passed on genetically, reliving somehow in our DNA. I’ve only read about him but smelt his presence between black-printed paragraphs.“

We most definitely felt his presence while experiencing this thought-provoking, inspiring play. Perfect timing before Remembrance Day. Lest We Forget.