June 14, 2007
This is brilliant. You should really go and see this. I’m telling you this because your first instinct will be to run a mile. You’ll see that it’s listed as being for ‘older people’, perhaps visit the lobby of the Pegasus and see the displays on fall prevention workshops for the elderly. You’ll dismiss it as ‘issues’ theatre, earnest as a Dimbleby and entertaining as a test card.
You’ll be wrong. The central character is, indeed, elderly. She does, indeed, fall and spends a little time considering out loud how this could have been avoided. But for the next hour there’s fantasy, tragedy and an affecting exploration of what it might mean to have lived a ‘good’ life. Oh, and a big closing dance number.
Carole Dance, as the older Gracie, gives an outstanding performance. Both vocally and physically she’s as believable frailly nursing her potentially broken leg and calling for her husband as she is vigorously jiving with her unexpectedly encountered younger self.
The set was a tiny landing, much smaller than the stage itself, which had been beautifully dressed to seem half in the past and half in the present throughout – so that when the younger Gracie (Kate Bish) arrives, fresh from having celebrated VE day with a brief liaison that will affect her life forever, you understand and accept the fantasy instinctively. The first time they touch, the light and sound gently shifts from night to morning – a small, eerie effect that draws you effortlessly into the play’s world.
Sara Clifford’s script occasionally veered towards the cliché – but in general did an excellent job of building up and then demolishing our assumptions about the older Gracie. There’s no grand ‘message’ here – the younger Gracie learns (perhaps) that life isn’t going to be as simple, or as romantic, as she thinks it is, while the older Gracie returns to the present with a little more conviction that she made the right choice all those years ago.
This is how to do low budget community theatre properly – with energy, imagination and thoughtful direction mere monetary and technological constraints are of no consequence. The organisation behind the play is a foundation dedicated to improving the life of the elderly through art – a worthy goal. But when you go (and you really should go, did I mention this?), you’ll barely notice all of that – you’ll be too busy watching good theatre.
You’ll be wrong. The central character is, indeed, elderly. She does, indeed, fall and spends a little time considering out loud how this could have been avoided. But for the next hour there’s fantasy, tragedy and an affecting exploration of what it might mean to have lived a ‘good’ life. Oh, and a big closing dance number.
Carole Dance, as the older Gracie, gives an outstanding performance. Both vocally and physically she’s as believable frailly nursing her potentially broken leg and calling for her husband as she is vigorously jiving with her unexpectedly encountered younger self.
The set was a tiny landing, much smaller than the stage itself, which had been beautifully dressed to seem half in the past and half in the present throughout – so that when the younger Gracie (Kate Bish) arrives, fresh from having celebrated VE day with a brief liaison that will affect her life forever, you understand and accept the fantasy instinctively. The first time they touch, the light and sound gently shifts from night to morning – a small, eerie effect that draws you effortlessly into the play’s world.
Sara Clifford’s script occasionally veered towards the cliché – but in general did an excellent job of building up and then demolishing our assumptions about the older Gracie. There’s no grand ‘message’ here – the younger Gracie learns (perhaps) that life isn’t going to be as simple, or as romantic, as she thinks it is, while the older Gracie returns to the present with a little more conviction that she made the right choice all those years ago.
This is how to do low budget community theatre properly – with energy, imagination and thoughtful direction mere monetary and technological constraints are of no consequence. The organisation behind the play is a foundation dedicated to improving the life of the elderly through art – a worthy goal. But when you go (and you really should go, did I mention this?), you’ll barely notice all of that – you’ll be too busy watching good theatre.