This play by Jake Talbot, is one of various productions taking place across five venues in the second annual Oldham Arts Festival. Featuring essentially new writing and performed largely by Oldham-based actors, this new festival looks set to ensure an on-going platform for emerging dramatic talent from the Oldham area. A quick glance through the listing of events reveals an emphasis on hard-hitting themes and ‘Everything that should’ve been’ is no exception.
The scenario is five women meeting in a hospital treatment room, each one of them in a different decade of life, from mid-twenties to mid-sixties and what follows could be described as existentialism from a female perspective but there is too much raw honesty and energy in this play to simply dismiss it as a feminism rant. The setting is a female hospital ward so the characters have female perspectives but much of what is considered and discussed is universal and this is a play for everyone.
Each character has their own distinct background but coupled with very individual thoughts on life. The twenty-something has a bleak outlook not sure she’ll make it to thirty with her job as a waitress causing her to see all people as like glasses waiting to be broken. The thirty something is finding fulfilment in motherhood and a good marriage. The forty-something regrets several life choices, feeling as she enters middle-age that people are starting to ‘look through her’ in contrast to the fifty-something who looks back a good relationship cut short by her partner’s death. The sixty-something looks forward, contemplating people crying when she dies, humorously saying ‘they’d better!’ whilst looking back on many years of a fulfilling marriage.
There are echoes of ‘Waiting for Godot’ as the characters consider the seeming meaningless of life, both in terms of the span of life when measured in the light of eternity and the daily drudgery of boring tasks such as cleaning, washing and various jobs which just have to be endlessly repeated. There is a lot of consideration also of what might have been if only different choices had been taken at specific key moments. However, there is a lot of balance as well, with the women in different ways finding numerous things they have to be thankful for with even the twenty-something eventually realising the good sense in living for the moment rather than moping about a bad future which may not even come.
Director Miranda Parker takes a minimalist approach with the sole prop being a black block, which double up as one of the hospital beds (the other beds being represented by comfy armchairs). The block also serves as a focal point, to which all the women come for mutual support. However, there is more to this play than dialogue. A blend of mime and dance, choreographed by Jayne Sladen, is used to bring over the emotional backdrop to the setting, with emotive electronic music making is clear that none of the women are in a relaxed state, echoed in their movements which appear either robotic or restricted. The lighting in this studio theatre also serves for various moods to be created.
This is a thought-provoking play that explores the extent to which we need each other and find fulfilment coming from being with and helping others. There is certainly plenty of philosophising but this is contrasted with the joy of finding fun in the moment. After all, you can hardly spend time contemplating death in the midst of laughing with friends! Look out for more offerings from Dare to Know productions.
https://www.1853studios.com/events/dare-to-create
Reviewer: John Waterhouse
On: 07.08.26
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