Brian (A.J. Murtagh) is the client no lawyer wants, and it’s easy to see why. Accused of murdering his father, he’s not interested in offering a defence. As far as he’s concerned, he killed an old man who wanted to die anyway, because he hated him. “I’m guilty,” he insists. “It’s illegal.”  

Brian may not think he needs Tom (Alex Greig), but Tom needs Brian and says so at one point. He needs him because his career is faltering, and a successful defence in a controversial case could make all the difference. 

Brian doesn’t make it easy. Facts and stories are all the same to him, and while not entirely unsympathetic he’s rude, manipulative and confrontational, rubbishing Tom’s suggestion that a not-guilty plea based on the idea of mercy killing could work. Despite Tom’s attempts to establish some sort of truth, he continues to assert that “I’m nobody,” and that “No one will listen to me.” The fact that Tom talks over his head in an abstract, speculative way doesn’t help.

Enter Tom’s wife Rachel (Liz Kirkman). Their increasingly fractured relationship isn’t going anywhere either: tensions are high and neither of them is being entirely reasonable about how they might achieve their more or less shared goals.

The pivotal scene is also the play’s weakest. It comes when Brian and Rachel meet unexpectedly in Tom’s office and develop a rapport that neither of them seems to have with Tom. The play’s credibility is dented at this point because it isn’t believable that Tom would leave Brian, who has a history of smashing things, alone in his office. Nor is it easy to accept that Rachel, who may be brittle but doesn’t seem stupid, would have a personal conversation with her husband’s client and give him potentially damaging information.

Still, there are some interesting themes: the relationships between absolute truth and interpretations of that truth, between social classes and their assumptions and expectations, between parents and children and especially fathers and sons, between domestic life and career advancement. 

Produced by Jason Te Kare and engineered by Phil Benge, the soundtrack heightens the drama by featuring appropriately unsettling sounds, including the crash of breaking glass. The play won Playmarket’s Adam Play Award in 2013 and premiered on stage at Centrepoint Theatre the following year. 

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