Review: Albion Theatre's COLDER THAN HERE is an Affectionately Droll Dark Comedy

Albion Theatre’s current production is the St. Louis premiere of Laura Wade’s comedic drama Colder Than Here. This production of Wade’s lighthearted take on terminal cancer marks the first time the company has staged a play by a female playwright from England.  

Prior to curtain, Assistant Director CJ Langdon mentioned that Wade’s play was an obvious choice to be included in the season. When asked about why Colder Than Here rose to the top of the list during readings, Langdon shared that both he and director Robert Ashton have had personal experiences helping a family member with a metastatic illness. He said, “We felt like we could sensitively deal with the topic and still bring out the humor in Wade’s script.”  

Colder Than Here is a warm and witty look at how a mother, Myra (Susan Wylie), manages her layers of grief while helping her husband and two adult children come to terms with her illness. While she knows she cannot alter the course of her disease, Myra is determined to control everything she can, including every detail of her funeral.  

Sounds morbid? It’s not. Colder Than Here is a very funny and warm story. Director Robert Ashton has sensitively mined all the situational humor from the script and inspired transformative performances from his actors.  

Ashton gained permission from the playwright’s publishing service to use a narrator, instead of projections, to set exterior scenes in cemeteries that allow the audience to visualize the landscape. It works very well. Gwynneth Rausch’s solemn descriptions add to the production’s tenderness and heart. 

Ashton’s sublime cast impress with their convincing portrayals. Susan Wylie (Myra), David Wassilak (Alec), Anna Langdon (Harriet), and Livy Potthoff (Jenna) vanish into their roles as the mother, father, and daughters coping with Myra’s illness.  

But it’s more than Ashton’s keen eye for casting and the nuanced portrayals he gets from his actors. He pays diligent attention to the fine points. When he directs comedy, he perfects the timing. There is no doubt this quartet of highly skilled actors bring their own precise rhythm and pacing to their roles, but Ashton leaves nothing to chance. His casts are always over rehearsed, and their accents, whether British, Irish, Scottish, or Welsh, are practiced for consistency.  

Ashton’s doesn’t miss a detail. His strong collaboration with his design and technical teams is apparent in every aspect of the production. For example, when Alec is working to replace the fuse on space heater’s plug, the prop space heater has a Type G plug that if found on British appliances. This careful attention is applied to Gwynneth Raush’s props selections, Michelle Zielinski’s lighting design, Kristin Meyer and Jeff Kargus’ set design and construction, Ted Drury’s sound design and projections, Tracey Newcomb’s costume selections, and Marjorie Williamson’s graphic design.  

Wylie is transcendent as the mother and wife who is managing her own emotions while helping her daughters come to terms with their own grief process. Her physicality conveys the tolls of Myra’s illness on her body. Her facial expressions and make-up show a worn, more tired woman as time goes on. 

Wassilak’s detached portrayal of a husband in denial is acting genius. Seems Alec’s coping mechanism is to ignore Susan’s illness and not discuss it. Wassilak says more in a few moments of silence, punctuated by short sarcastic quips, than most actors can convey with pages of scripted dialogue. His timing is impeccable, and his performance is especially poignant when he must accept Susan’s illness and mortality.  

Langdon and Potthoff are brilliant as the sparing siblings who handle their grief differently. Potthoff’s Jenna is taxed with the role of finding a burial place that would meet her mother’s approval. She’s a bit sardonic with her mother and sister, while vying for the attention of her emotionally checked out father. 

Langdon’s is the older, more emotionally grounded sibling. She is more responsive than emotionally reactionary and leads a very funny scene where the family is drinking wine in the family’s drawing room. 

It is odd to call a story about a terminal cancer patient likeable, warm, and witty. Ashton and his cast have staged a bittersweet production of Colder Than Here that is filled with vulnerable performances. Laura Wade’s affectionately droll and delightfully strange dark comedy conveys how laughter can be a cathartic force that disarms grief. 

Albion Theatre’s Colder Than Here continues at The Kranzberg Black Box Theatre through June 29, 2025. Tickets are available on Metrotix.  Click the link below for more information.  
 

PHOTO CREDIT: John Lamb

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