Tuesdays With Morrie on stage: how to die, how to live and how to spot an idea for a bestseller

This tearjerker based on Mitch Albom’s 1997 memoir makes it look like dying isn’t so bad — if you could do it as gracefully as this

Dan Butler as Morrie in Tuesdays with Morrie

Katy Hayes

What does dying feel like? That is one of the big questions for the living. Journalist Mitch Albom’s 1997 memoir about his meetings with his ailing sociology professor was an immediate bestseller, then a successful TV film, then repurposed as a play in 2002 (adapted by Albom and Jeffrey Hatcher). Veteran Irish producers Breda Cashe and Pat Moylan serve it up here in an elegant production that hits all the intense notes, sounding plenty of heartfelt gongs.

Successful sports journalist Mitch (Stephen Jones) learns his old college sociology professor Morrie Schwartz (Dan Butler) is dying from ALS, a degenerative neurological disease. Irish audiences will know this type of condition from the story of the late Charlie Bird, whose spirit is summoned in a deft programme note by journalist/playwright Colin Murphy. Mitch arranges to meet Morrie on Tuesdays; he interviews the dying man over several months, eliciting nuggets of wisdom.