Over 25 per cent of adolescents and teenagers have been bullied repeatedly either through their cell-phones or on the internet. Canadian playwright Jordan Tannahill wrote Late Company, his involving 75-minute social drama, in 2011 when he was only 23. It’s about grief and how people handle it in their different ways. It is also about the problem of being a parent today.
A 16-year-old boy commits suicide as a result of cyber-bullying. The boy’s parents decide to invite one of the bullies and his parents to dinner in the hope of some sort of closure. Many people would think such a meeting most unwise and have very serious reservations about its healing efficacy without professional support. The cast – Lucy Robinson, Todd Boyce, Alex Lowe, Lisa Stevenson and David Leopold – is first-rate and the confrontations, directed by Michael Yale, have real dramatic force.