The play that changed my life: Complicité’s A Minute Too Late was a matter of life and death

Our series on transformative theatrical discoveries continues with the moving 1984 show exploring our buttoned-up approach to mortality

I had been brought up in Newcastle where the RSC used to come for a season every year. I thought theatre was Shakespeare. But this was something else, this was magic.

The story was about all the officialdom and desperate politeness around death, everybody having to pretend they are absolutely fine. It made you laugh, and cry, so hard: Marcello Magni’s dextrous and inimitable clown routine in the office for registering births and deaths. Jos Houben making a flickering fire with his fingers. A scene by the grave with them slowly, sadly, sinking as they walked away across the churchyard to leave. Simon McBurney alone at the grave at a loss for words. We lost brilliant Marcello in 2022 and so A Minute Too Late now feels ever more poignant.

Blizzard is at 59E59 theatres, New York, 12-30 June.

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