Creepy Playwright Explains His Death-Inspired Play

A Brit playwright is getting more attention than he should for writing a play about taking his ex-wife to Swiss death clinic Dignitas for assisted killing – and how the idea for the play came the same day she died. Creepy.

Theatre review: An Instinct for Kindness at Trafalgar Studios

Two years ago, Chris Larner took his ex-wife Allyson, in chronic pain with multiple sclerosis, to Dignitas in Switzerland to help her die.

The idea to turn his story into a play first came to him on the day that Allyson swallowed the bitter and lethal dose of sodium pentobarbital, but he was “immediately repulsed with myself for thinking such a thing”. more

Best-Selling Author Backs Assisted Suicide

Here we go again – the arts getting into supporting legitimating assisted suicide, in this case, the best-selling author Jodi Picoult. There’s no doubt that as these things creep into books, the average reader will be influenced to accept pro-death ideas.

Jodi Picoult On New Novel 'Lone Wolf', Supporting Assisted Suicide And Why She's Against Self-Publishing

Jodi Picoult, the outspoken author of 'ethical fiction', has written 19 novels and topped the New York Times bestseller list on five different occasions.

Her latest book Lone Wolf follows Luke Baxter, a man obsessed with wolves who goes into a coma following a car accident. It traces the dilemma then faced his children in trying to decide whether to keep him alive artificially or let him die.

Here she talks about researching the book in Devon, and expresses her opinions on everything from assisted suicide to the current trend for self-publishing. more

Assisted Suicide As Art

So it goes. Man takes wife to Swiss death clinic Dignitas for assisted suicide. Becomes poster person for “the cause.” Writes play about his experiences. This is how the pro-deathers seep into popular culture. Aren’t we lucky?

Interview: Chris Larner on dramatising Dignitas

"I am still technically under threat of arrest for taking Allyson and it doesn't help to have that hanging over you when you dealing with a situation like this," said actor Chris Larner who accompanied his ex-wife to Switzerland after she decided to end her life. more

Pro-Death Ideas Seep Into The Arts

Here's another example of pro-death ideas seeping not only into the media, but into the arts.

His charming self

. . . He'll soon be seen in two films currently in post-production: the Rob Reiner-directed "Summer at Dog Dave's" starring Morgan Freeman and Virginia Madsen; and "Chez Upshaw," a dark comedy starring Illeana Douglas and Shane Johnson about a couple who turn their bed and breakfast lodge into a resort for assisted suicides. more

Assisted Suicide Infiltrates The Arts

So it goes - assisted suicide is now making it to the mainstream arts scene. Of course, these shows are almost all pro-death, as is the case here

True-life assisted suicide tale at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011

Having earned her third major Fringe award for last year’s forensic, verbatim one-man show Lockerbie: Unfinished Business, director Hannah Eidinow moves one step closer to her subject matter here. With An Instinct For Kindness, solo performer Chris Larner tells first-hand of accompanying his ex-wife Allyson to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland to undergo an assisted suicide. more

UK: Artistic Mainstreaming Of The Pro-Deathers' Worldview

The pro-deathers never quit. Here's an example: a play about assisted suicide, all in the hopes of making assisted suicide and the pro-death worldview more mainstream.

Chris Larner brings one-man show to theatre his former wife helped to set up

A play about a Bradford woman who died at Swiss clinic Dignitas is coming to a theatre that she helped to set up. more