“The train is a small world moving through a larger world.” - Elisha Cooper
In her previous show, Loft Clearance, Eileen Mahony sorted through the contents of her loft, wondering what to do with all those things to which she had an emotional attachment.
Now she finds herself at a junction, or more precisely at the Greenside Central train station waiting room, not really knowing where she is going. With her she has six remaining boxes, each a stage along her life’s train track, but she hasn’t really thought out the retirement bit.
She unpacks the boxes, neatly sorted items which represent growth, choices, exploring, laying the track, rediscoveries, retiral and rewards. With each there are memories and objects, tied with tales of youth and travel, motherhood and ultimately life after work. In this sixth season of her life, she is the person she always was, all the memories remain, she just isn’t a teacher anymore.
All the time she prods the audience to add their own personal meaning to these themes. There is no one size fits all answer, and a “talking heads” video provides alternative views on what retirement might look like.
Again, as with Loft Clearance this is a warmly told spoken word piece interspersed with PowerPoint type slides, although it introduces a bit more drama to couple the topics together.
It’s not as natural as the previous show, but for people of retiral age (whatever that might be) it provides food for thought.
Show times: 2 to 17 (not 11) August 2024 at 3.10pm.
Tickets: £12
Suitability: 12+
Note: Loft Clearance is also on in the same venue at 11.40am.