31 Hours by Kieran Knowles is the type of explosive play that makes you watch your every step on the way home from the theatre, afraid something may fall on you, or you may bump into someone. It presents what theatre offers at its best: a mirror to society, making the audience dread and embrace every word that is coming.
“Every 31 hours someone takes their own life by jumping in front of a train. They are ten times more likely to be male.”
31 Hours is the story of four men who clean up after rail suicides. Four actors (Abdul Salis, James Wallwork, Salvatore D’Aquilla and Jack Sunderland) enter in their Network Rail orange work gear, and don’t leave the stage for about ninety minutes. They switch roles, going from the employees to the employers, family members to suicidal characters. Not only do these four workers have to face the aftermath of suicide and “incidents” every week, but the hard work they put in leaves them isolated, not willing to talk. This in turn brings its own questions about why they are doing this job at all and even what they are living for.
