August 9, 2015
There’s a comedy show in Edinburgh that teaches you how to die
EDINBURGH — Dicing with Dr. Death has been dancing with the authorities.
The Edinburgh Fringe show, which explores methods of assisted suicide and is presented by Australian euthanasia doctor Philip Nitschke, has been marred in controversy and closely watched by the authorities in the weeks leading up to its opening night.
The Metropolitan Police questioned Nitschke under caution about the content of the show in April and this week local officers in Edinburgh joined members of the city council in snooping around the logistics, threatening to derail the whole thing.
They share concerns that the performance, which is concerned with “teaching the funny side of the right-to-die debate,” breaches UK assisted suicide laws. Eventually, though, and after a stage full of people examined the equipment and general set-up at the last minute, the show was allowed to go on.
It’s an odd hour of entertainment, even by Edinburgh standards. Participants are asked if they’re police as they enter the gloomy cave that’s hosting proceedings, and disclaimers on each chair insist that if we end up taking our lives, it’s got nothing to do with the gig we’re about to see.
Nitschke, meanwhile, cuts a striking figure as he ambles on stage, clutching a scythe that’s promptly dropped after a few seconds, white lab coat slung over a Hawaiian shirt, shorts and boots. A projector screen and a sinister machine hidden under a cloth complete the set-up.
From the outset, it’s clear Nitschke has laced the show with comic asides, some of which work better than others among the half-full auditorium. If we do commit suicide, he says, it’s not because we were taught to but because the “jokes were so bad.”
The first half of the show is relatively straightforward, covering why he took up medicine and what prompted his interest in euthanasia. He also discusses some of the four people he helped to die before retiring from medical practice (and later having his license revoked then restored) with a mix of genuine empathy and dark humor. His story of struggling to think of things to say over one patient’s final lunch, and eventually choosing to watch the football with him in the hours before he ended his life, brings the debate to a very personal and human level.
However, it’s when he gets into the nitty gritty of the business of death that you can feel the hidden policemen’s ears burning. Tales of “ringing the experts in Texas” and learning about “smooth Texas triple infusions” lead on to a specific discussion of which drugs will kill you and where they can be obtained. Nembutal is favoured but Lethabarb works too. A digression into the extramarital habits of vets prompts some of the first belly laughs of the night.
Although the law on assisting suicide is pretty clear, it’s hard to see why the authorities are so concerned with the show. Everything Nitschke discusses is widely available online in much more detail. Some of the police interest and health and safety concerns stem from complaints, Nitschke believes, potentially from anti-euthanasia groups. Organizations such as Care Not Killing and Living And Dying Well have condemned the show.
The evening’s finale was meant include a demonstratation of his infamous Destiny machine, a new version of his Deliverance machine, which allows the user to follow a series of Yes or No questions to their own demise. However, police intervention resulted in a watered-down experience for the one volunteer who agreed to go through the motions of watching herself die – the planned gasses were banned and instead we saw her cardiac trace “diminish” while the doctor told us what would have happened.
It was a fitting end for a show that, despite the furore, isn’t half as lethal as you might think.
‘Dicing with Dr Death’ previewed Thursday night and continues nightly at Just The Tonic at the Caves, 253 Cowgate, until Aug. 29 – unless the police shut it down.