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Adie Mueller - Another Goodbye Interview

Another Goodbye is a gentle exploration into the inevitability of death that we all encounter at some point during our lives, and the challenges we may face when confronting life without someone we can’t imagine being without. Written and performed by Adie Mueller (Sandman and My Heart, My Heart: Live Poetry Jukebox), and directed by Anne Langford (The Old Vic and The Almeida), Another Goodbye was created after the passing of Adie’s mother at the age of 83, who had been suffering from a rare auto-immune disease. The piece follows Adie’s experience of her mother’s death and is a chance to engage in meaningful conversations about a topic that affects us all.


When Adie’s mother passed away in Germany in May 2020, it dawned upon her that she had been avoiding thinking about death, as she found it too difficult to talk about. She began to ask herself why death is such a taboo subject, despite its inevitability. Journalling about her journey through grief, she then turned these entries into an audio performance in 2021 which premiered at The Place Theatre, Bedford, and was later released on Touch Radio. During this time, she also received consultancy on the audio work from Dr Kathryn Mannix, author of With the End in Mind: Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial.

Throughout this journey, Adie has spoken with many people in her local community, including palliative nurses and charity workers, who connected with the topic and opened up about their own experiences of grief. This outpouring of honesty inspired Adie to combine the live performance with a conversation, to allow people the opportunity to experience it collectively.

Adie’s moving piece will be performed at three locations across the UK, in partnership with local hospices; St Helena Hospice, Keech Hospice Care and Arthur Rank Hospice. The performance will follow Adie’s last moments with her mother and serves as a gateway to a guided discussion about death and end-of-life care, hosted by the hospices. The intention of the evening is to break down barriers around discussing death, as well as to engage with and highlight the amazing work of hospices and local support services.

We sat down with Adie to learn more about the show.

What can you tell me about Another Goodbye?
Another Goodbye is a gentle exploration of the loss of a parent and is based on my experience of my mother’s death. The narrative starts with my mum’s decision to go into palliative care and ends a year later with my dad selling the family home. The show combines storytelling with a beautiful soundscape and video projections. The performance is followed by a conversation about end-of-life care and death facilitated by local hospices. We made the show with the intention to provide a space for reflection and conversation about dying, death and loss. But it’s also an opportunity for people to learn about the work of their local hospice and the range of amazing services they provide.

The show was inspired following the death of your mother, how did you come about wanting to write a piece for the stage?
I was lucky to be able to be there when my mother died during the first lockdown in 2020. It was a very peaceful, almost spiritual experience to be with her.  I had avoided thinking about what her death might look like; and I was surprised that it wasn’t anything like I had imagined. And I asked myself why we aren’t really talking much about death, why it seems such a difficult topic for everyone, given that it is something none of us can avoid. I started journaling about the experience, writing down what had happened before her death from memory and committing key events to paper as they unfolded. The journal entries then formed the basis of Another Goodbye.

Artistically I’m really interested in ordinary human experience that’s rarely talked about. I had been touring the interactive installation My Heart, My Heart: Live Poetry Jukebox, in which audiences could choose from a selection of poetry and I would recite their chosen poem to them. The poems were all about human experience, and we would often sit and chat about the poem after they had listened to it. There was Adrian Mitchell’s ‘Death Is Smaller Than I Thought’ in the mix, and it had such a powerful effect on audiences. I guess I was curious to explore the experience of ‘death’ and ‘loss’ in more depth.


What was the writing and developing process like for this piece?
I got together with director and dramaturg Peader Kirk to create an audio, as we were still in the Covid-period and theatres were closed for most of the time. We went through my journal entries, shortened and simplified them and put them into a clear structure. We teamed up with sound artist Armin Lorenz Gerold, who created the soundscape, and received consultancy from Dr Kathryn Mannix, a former palliative doctor and author of the book “With the End in Mind: Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial”. The audio premiered online via The Place Theatre Bedford in 2021 and was later released on Touch Radio. I was really pleased with the outcome, but wanted to do more with it. 

Hence the idea to turn into a live performance. It took a while to put it all together, but we finally got to make the piece, this time collaborating with director Anne Langford, set & lighting designer Trui Malten and technical stage manager Francis de Lima. We now had to take the audio and create the right ‘stage world’, projections and movement language for it. It’s been an amazing team to work with. Everyone has been so committed to the project and the subject matter; it’s been a genuine creative collaboration.

What research did you do whilst developing the piece?
For the audio, I immersed myself into literature on palliative care, death and grief. I also attended the first Good Grief Festival online, and listened to many of the talks they presented. I reached out to charities, death cafes and people working in palliative care and counselling, and had many wonderful conversations.

How important was that research in your own development?
I’ve found the process of doing the research and making the show incredibly life-affirming. Facing up to death is like a wake-up call; it’s made me feel more alive. It brings more clearly into focus what matters in life. I’ve also become more mindful and skilful around people who have experienced loss. I’m now co-facilitating a Death Cafe myself. Death cafes are gatherings of people, often strangers, who are interested in talking about anything in relation to death. These are usually very joyful gatherings.

You are partnering with local hospices, how vital has that been for you?
I think there’s something so beautiful in the work hospices do; there is so much care going into the care they provide, and into the practical and emotional support they provide to loved ones, too. And hospice staff are so passionate about and proud of what they do. I was dreadfully unprepared for my mother’s dying and death, and my parents didn’t have the medical and emotional support they needed. And I regret that I didn’t know what was available to them. My hope is that people who come to see the show will have the chance to connect with hospice staff, talk to them and learn about their work. I also really wanted the ‘experts’ to manage the conversation; it shouldn’t be about me and the show, but about the relevance of the show to the community and about making connections with each other.

Where did your arts career begin?
Oh, that’s a really difficult question to answer. I did school plays during my teenage years, was part of amateur drama, and then studied theatre as part of a general arts degree in Germany. I then came to the UK to do an MA in Theatre. I went into an academic career, but continued training through workshops and working on different types of projects. I finally made my first solo show ‘Sandman’ in 2015, but I think there are many beginnings…

What keeps you inspired?
I’ve been lucky to train with some of the greats of avant-garde world theatre: the Suzuki Company of Toga, Anne Bogart and the SITI company and Odin Teatret, and I’ve trained in depth in the Suzuki Method with Ozfrank. These experiences have had a profound impact on me. I think that theatre can be transformative, and I’m trying to create experiences that change audiences in some way, even if it’s on a very small scale.


What do you hope an audience member takes away from seeing Another Goodbye?
I hope that they would feel a little more confident to talk about anything in relation to death, that they would start thinking about end-of-life planning and that they would know where to turn for support. I would also hope that they feel a little more alive.

Where can audiences see the show?
Another Goodbye is coming to Colchester Arts Centre on the 6th, The Place Theatre Bedford on the 14th and Cambridge Junction on the 19th of November.

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