Jo O’Reilly

YOUR HARLOW caught up with Harlow bred actor Chris Larner today ahead of his return to The Playhouse with his emotion new production ‘An Instict For Kindness’.

The production tells the story of Larner’s trip to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland with his ex-wife Alison. ‘I came back from Switzerland with the story burning a hole in my heart, Alison was an actress and it seemed like a piece of theatre was the right way to tell that story.’

As well as being an intense show, which Larner admits can be emotional draining to perform, the subject of assisted suicide can be highly contentious. Although Larner reported that so far the feedback about the production had been ‘largely positive’ high profile cases in the British media have drawn divided opinions, ‘There are people that think we shouldn’t be having the discussion.’

‘I’d like people to think about the subject on a personal level, I want the audience to feel like they have met Alison and have a personal dimension to the story.’

He also hopes to challenge some of the myths surrounding assisted suicide, ‘I’m not trying to change peoples minds, I am just trying to tell the story of one woman, Alison, who had been largely robbed of her dignity by her illness, trying to retain some at the end of her life.’

As well as this, the play explores the practicalities of traveling to Switzerland for assisted suicide ‘One of the things I tried to bring out in the play is, it’s not easy to get to Dignitas, It’s expensive and bureaucratic, with a lot of form-filling. There are a lot of hoops to jump through.’

An Instinct For Kindness is showing at The Playhouse on September 25th you can book your seats now by calling the box office on: 01279 431945