Right of Way

First things first: Beth Bowden, like the other women in her family, is an indomitable spirit who likes the sea, chocolate cake and walking. Throughout her childhood she used to take long walks with her mother, tender moments that she recollects while using white chalk to draw on the stage floor – until her mother got sick, and they couldn’t walk together anymore. Until she herself had to learn how to live with chronic pain. Until she had to start walking for herself, to walk herself out of pain and grief, as well as for her beloved mum, becoming her eyes and legs. 

Right of Way is the interdisciplinary artist’s semi-autobiographical, self-empowering journey through love, chronic pain and loss. With the aid of a multimedia projection, as well as chalk and glass containers filled with water, we follow Bowden on the South West coastal path: 100 plus miles of iodine air, stunningly dramatic coastlines and lyrical writing. 

The writer has found a highly imaginative and overall refreshing way of telling a story that is not an easy one to share, utilising a non-linear narrative – after all, grief is a non-linear process. Particularly clever is the tonal shift, from melodically lyrical to angrily factual, when addressing the disastrous government decision-making during the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically the impact it had on disabled people. Bowden makes it clear: she does not want to romanticise or coat in metaphors any of that. The young carer found herself locked inside for months, having to look after her mother, for whom getting sick equalled death. She is not afraid to call out the ones responsible, using her chalk to write down how many people have died of Covid to date, and pointing out how many of those were disabled. Then she sits down in the front row, as if to say, “I know you all know. I’m not alone in my grief and neither are you. Right now, we are one.”

If the play is sea water, the audience is a sponge that soaks it all up, every minute, every word. Salt seems to be the thread connecting all four parts: salt found in water, salt found in human bodies, and bags of salt to symbolise chronic pain. Beth cuts the bags, and the salt pours down like rain, spilling all over. But salt also brings solace, in a way. It is a powerful and beautiful thing to be reminded of – that there is water and salt in all of us, and that it is possible to walk yourself out of your own body, even if just for a minute. 

Benedetta Mancusi
Photos: Lidia Crisafulli

Right of Way is at the Vaults from 21^st February until 26^th February 2023. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.