Francis Poet’s play premiered at The Leeds Playhouse in 2022. This week, Droylsden Little Theatre took on this giant, emotional rollercoaster of a play which takes us into the world of Alzheimer’s from the sufferer and the suffering’s point of view. That doesn’t sound cheery does it? It isn’t ..and yet somehow it still manages to elicit the magic of theatre: the one that makes you cry bucketloads, and laugh and laugh .. and laugh.
Alzheimer’s, a type of dementia, is a disease which plights the modern world and undoubtedly affects most of us, at some point, to some degree. So, to write a play which is completely set around an Alzheimer’s sufferer sounds heavy. It was, and yet it wasn’t. It made me realise the fragility of life, the preciousness of life, identity, connection, and the value of memory and memories.
Maggie has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and is struggling to hide it from her family despite the visual clues of a sea of reminder Post-it notes around the house. Her husband, recovering from a recent stroke, is in the know but can’t watch as she blunders through a family dinner with her darling son and his new girlfriend, Claire, by constantly referring to the new girlfriend as Emily; the son’s previous love interest. Maggie’s husband let’s the cat out of the bag and the ensuing rage from the son, along with the struggles with Maggie’s best friend and their friendship and Maggie trying to navigate the world whilst struggling to remember who is who and what, make for some black comedy, angst-ridden, lump-in -the-throat moments with some occasional guttural sob responses from the audience. (Okay I meant me).
Director Steve Mallinson knows what he wants and delivers and lands it, perfectly. He has of course the insurmountable talent of his amazing wife Mandy Mallinson giving a tour-de-force performance as the lead character. Mallinson’s Maggie had depth, humour and connection by the gallon. I laughed and cried as we followed her confusion, self talk, reminders and phone notes and tableaux spotlight scenes of self-analysis. She was so earthy and real and the scenes of lucidity where her husband sang and reached her longer term memory and they danced together, reconnecting, reuniting briefly were so sweet. Then, back to the fog , the confusion, the despair, the anger and rage. If you know or have known anyone with Alzheimer’s, it’s a dramatisation of a reality both recognisable and painful to watch and feel.
A simple, floating, white wooden-framed home by Tony Birch really emphasised the metaphor of life falling apart for me. Seemingly suspended, the walls and windows were ambient and yet fragile. A scrolling LED sign floating high, centre stage, served as a signpost for words and acting as thought bubbles for Maggie’s scrambled thought processes.
Maggie’s husband, the deeply loving and stoic man who must have been struggling with his own grief was played with strength, dignity, and a gentle kindness by Eddie Bradbury. Their son, Michael was handled with sensitivity and genuine struggle after the initial shock by Cameron Kennedy, ably supported by girlfriend Claire who was given a lovely turn by Charlotte Cochrane. They had real connection and journeyed their own struggles. When Maggie declares how she feels she would have loved a daughter like her, I lost it. Then again, as she demanded Michael ask her once more about not forgetting him. A promise which she could not keep but “she would always remember the feelings“. Mandy Mallinson had the audience in the palm of her hand the whole evening as we went along with her on her painful, bittersweet and unavoidable journey.
It’s not a play which has a sad ending as it leaves us at a point where Maggie is using a Harry Potter wand, on Claire’s suggestion, acted upon by Harry improvising with a screwdriver, to extract her memories and lock them away in a memory box. An excellent use of a toolbox here with Mallinson’s stellar comedic talents revealing her favourite memory of her best friend, Jean Nicholson’s ‘Jo’ much to Jo’s dismay. As it is a memory which Jo would sooner not be remembered and not her finest moment. She was played with a tart disdain, haughty, judging, and a high level of acidity, but we always felt the love between these two, very different characters.
A beautiful but highly emotive play with superb performances from DLT. A very memorable evening and a swan song for the Mallinsons, which I think that they will both put in their own retirement memory boxes. Huge congratulations to the whole society, this was a show to be very proud of .
Reviewer - Kathryn Gorton
on - 7.7.23
on - 7.7.23
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